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The Surviving Crossopterygian Fish, Latiivieria

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The Surviving Crossopterygian Fish, Latiivieria No. 3689, j UL Y 13, 1940 NATURE 53 THE SURVIVING CROSSOPTERYGIAN FISH, LATIIVIERIA BY SIR ARTHUR SMITH WOODWARD, F.R.S. JN NATURE of May 6, 1939, p. 455, Prof. J. L. B. in Coelacanths, are absent. The two nostrils are Smith, of Rhodes University College, Grahams. well seen on each side of the snout, but Prof. town, announced the discovery in South African Smith has been able to dissect this region and he seas of a living Crossopterygian or paddle-finned thinks that they do not communicate direct with fish . He recognized that it belonged to the group the olfactory capsules. These capsules are de­ of Coelacanths, which was known only by fossils scribed as situated on either side of a large median and was supposed to have been extinct since the chamber, which he namos "ethmoidal nasal end of the Cretaceous period. In the Transactions cavity" ; and the cavity is said to be connected of the Royal Society of South Africa, he now by tubes both with the two pairs of external describes in detail the remains of this fish*. Un­ nostrils ~nd with a pair of openings on the front fortunately, there are no more than dried remains ; end of the snout. The remarkable arrangement for when the specimen was sent to the East needs further study in a better preserved specimen. London Museum its scientific value was not The cranium, indeed, is so much damaged that appreciated, and it was entrusted to a taxidermist, Prof. Smith has been able to observe very little who preserved little beyond the external parts of it. and damaged some of these by piercing them with There is nothing unusual in the external bones pins and nails. Prof. Smith laments his "relatively of the head, but, as already suspected, it is now crude equipment" for dealing with the fish, but he clear that the preoperculum is extended on the is to be congratulated on his laborious effort and cheek as in the early Chondrosteans. There are on the technical account of so much as he has also degenerate remnants of the suboperculum and been able to observe. His memoir is illustrated by interoperculum. The mouth is very interesting an exhau,stive series of photographs and a few because, although there is no bony maxilla, this diagrammatic text-figures. There is also an element is represented by "a thickened fold of explanatory list of the numerals and letters used skin" which bears the usual little tooth-plates or in all the illustrations, and this is arranged on a clusters of conical teeth. Especially important page which unfolds outwards so that it may be and new is the identification of the hyomandibular kept always in view. bone, which is described as " very firmly bound to The Coelacanths have changed very little since the inner face of the anterior margin of the their first known appearance in Upper Devonian opercular". It is ossified only in its middle por­ formations, and it is difficult to separate the new tion, the long ends remaining cartilaginous. From living fish from some of the old genera which are the hyomandibular there extends downwards and represented by fossils. For convenient reference, forwards a relatively large symplectic bone, which however, Prof. Smith has done well to give this articulates with a hollow facet on the articular fish a new generic name, Latimeria, which com­ bone of the lower jaw, well behind the quadrate memorates Miss Courtenay Latimer, the curator articulation. As Prof. Smith remarks, the arrange­ of the East London Museum. Very curiously, it ment is suggestive of that in the existing Chondro­ retains the complete supplementary tail fin which steans. He points out that the facet on the characterizes the Jurassic and earlier genera, and articular bone has already been shown in published thus differs from the latest or Cretaceous genera, drawings of the lower jaw of the Devonian coela­ Macropoma and Mawsonia, which have the tail canth Diplocercides; and he might have added extension reduced and lacking fin rays. Only the that a pit in the same position has been described anterior dorsal fin, with its eight strong rays in the lower jaw of the Cretaceous Macropoma and armed with upwardly pointing denticles, and the Mawsonia_,. scales with their sharp denticles, are specially like The spiracle is supposed to have been function­ those of Macropoma. The caudal fin seems to less, but this portion of the head is badly preserved. have a few more rays than any of the known The gill arches were destroyed, but the copula extinct genera. seems to show that there were only four pairs. As in all Coelacanths, there are no scales on the Five pairs have been seen in some of the extinct head, and the sensory canals are conspicuous. Coelacanths. The circumorbital plates, so commonly observed The internal parts of the dried body have been • J. L. B. Smith, "A Living Coelacanthld Fish from South Africa" , so completely removed that little remains even of Tra11$ . Roy, Soc. S. Africa, 28, pt, 1, 1-106, pis. i-xliv, 1939 (received April 1940). the skeleton. One hremal spine in the tail, however, ©1940 Nature Publishing Group 54 NATURE JULY 13, 1940, VOL. 146 is seen to consist chiefly of cartilage surrounded by The exceptionally oily nature of Latimeria, a thin cylinder of bone, thus exhibiting the already mentioned in the preliminary notice, is structure to which the name Coelacanth (hollow interesting geologically, because it indicates one spine) refers, for the cartilage disappears and leaves possible source of the oil in many stratified rocks. a hollow space in the fossils. Like most of the extinct Coelacanths, there is no The only new character described in the fins is doubt that it is a sea fish, not a straggler from a the extension backwards of the membrane of the river. As Prof. Smith remarks, however, the anterior dorsal fin beyond its eight rays. The annulation of the scales shows that it cannot be extension is low and rapidly tapers behind, without a denizen of the ocean depths. It must be well any skeletal stiffening. The scales appear normal, within reach of the ordinary fishermen, and the and Prof. Smith observes ring-markings which he interest now aroused should induce the trawlers thinks prove the age of the fish to be between off the east coast of South Africa to save any more twenty and twenty-five years. specimens which they may find. OBITUARIES Sir James Baillie, O.B.E. m1ss10ns. His attitude of mind .and methods were rather cold and impersonal. He IR JAMES BLACK BAILLIE, who died on June 9 perhaps sometimes weighed the pros and cons, he had come to a at the age of sixty-seven, was vice-chancellor of the had S must give effect to the conclusion for University of Leeds from 1924 until 1938. A Scots­ conclusion, he sake. But there was a warm and man, he was educated at the Universities of Edin­ the conclusion's to Baillie's nature. He was an burgh, Cambridge, Halle, Strasbourg, and Paris. At sympathetic side a wide circle of friends and he was Edinburgh he had a particularly distinguished excellent host to and a good listener. record, gaining the Ferguson scholarship and Shaw a good conversationalist philosophical interest was Hegelian­ fellowship in philosophy, both open to graduates of Baillie's main a commentary, "The the four Scottish universities. After graduation he ism. In 1901 he published of Hegel's Logic". His was an assistant at the University of St. Andrews. Origin and Significance Construction of Experience", Later he was lecturer in philosophy at University "Outline of the Idealistic based on Hegel's "Phanomenologie College, Dundee. He was professor of moral philo­ 1906, is avowedly Perhaps Baillie's most important sophy at the University of Aberdeen during 1902- des Geistes". to philosophy was his translation, with 24. He was knighted in 1931. contribution notes, of the "Phanomenologie". The most significant period of Baillie's life was an introduction and and in a second edition, with a when he was vice-chancellor at Leeds. He was It appeared in 1910 Its first appearance keenly interested in problems of administration, and much improved text, in 1931. notable, for here was a major work at Leeds this interest was fully satisfied. The Uni­ was particularly English for the first versity of Leeds saw great developments under his of Hegel's made available in Baillie was a contributor to the first leadership. In 1925 an appeal was made by the time. In 1924 Philosophy", a col­ University for the sum of half a million pounds for series of "Contemporary British leading philosophers, the purpose of erecting more adequate buildings. lection of personal statements by Muirhead. He was also a contributor This appeal had realized about £700,000 at the time edited by J. H. Religion and Ethics", of his retirement, and many fine buildings had been to Hastings' "Encyclopredia of other periodicals. As erected, notably the Brotherton Library. Five new the Hibbert Journal, Mind, and ingenious and acute chairs and many lectureships and scholarships were a philosopher Baillie was an was, too, a most stimulating lecturer, instituted during Baillie's period of office, and dialectician. He all sides of human valuable benefactions received. But human life is illuminating his theme from outlook was not unlike not merely thought or intellect in a narrow sense, as nature. In many respects his Thomas Reid, he himself showed in his "Studies in Human Nature" ; that of his illustrious predecessor, W. M. DICKIE. there are other highly important activities.
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