Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 January 2013
The genus Amphioxus was instituted by Mr Yarrell for the reception of a singular little animal which he received from Mr Couch. The characters of this genus, as given in the History of British Fishes, are, “Body compressed, the surface without scales, both ends pointed; a single dorsal fin extending the whole length of the back; no pectoral, ventral, anal, or caudal fins; mouth on the under part of the head, narrow, elongated, each lateral margin furnished with a row of slender filaments.”
page 247 note * Yarrell's History of British Fishes, vol. ii. page 468.
page 247 note † Pallas, Spic. Zool. x. p. 19. t. i. fig. 11.
page 247 note ‡ Stewart's Elements of Natural History, 2d ed. vol. i. p. 386.
page 248 note * Yarrell's British Fishes, loc. cit.
page 248 note † Bericht über die zur Bekanntmachung geeigneten Verhandlungen der Konigl. Preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Nov. 1839, p. 197.
page 249 note * Magazine of Natural History, July 1838.
page 261 note * Report of the British Association, 1840.