6oo 



TELEOSTEI 



and most recent authors have identified them throughout the 

 order as maxillaries. 1 The conclusion I have come to from the 

 examination of numerous skulls belonging to various genera, is 

 that the praemaxillaries have disappeared in all, whilst the 

 maxillaries have persisted in the true Eels (Anguillidae) and 

 disappeared in the Muraenidae, their place being taken by the 

 fused palato-ectopterygoids, which may even join the mandibular 

 suspensorium. The vestigial bone, regarded by Jacoby as the 

 pterygoid in Muraena helena, may be identified as the meta- 

 pterygoid, and therefore does not disprove the homology, here 

 suggested, of the other elements of the palate. 



Fam. 1. Anguillidae. Maxillaries present, separated on the 

 median line by the ethmo-vomer ; palato-pterygoid bone present, 

 connected with the hyomandibular and quadrate ; gill-clefts sepa- 

 rate, opening into the pharynx by wide slits ; tongue present ; 

 vent far removed from the head. 



cl 



FIG. 362. Skull and pectoral arch of Conger vulgaris, side view. Ar, Articular : br, 

 branchiostegal rays ; ch, ceratohyal ; d, clavicle ; cor, coracoid ; d, dentary : eot, 

 epiotic ; eth, ethmoid ; f, frontal ; hm, hyomandibular ; iop, interoperculum ; in, 

 maxilla ; n, nasal ; op, operculum ; p, parietal ; pop, praeoperculum ; par, praeorbital ; 

 ppt, pterygo-palatine ; ps, paraspheuoid ; pff, post-frontal ; ptr, pterygials ; q, 

 quadrate ; sc, scapula ; scl, supra-clavicle ; so, supra-occipital ; sop, suboperculuni ; 

 sq, squamosal ; uh, urohyal ; v, vomer. 



Spread over all the seas of the temperate and tropical zones, 

 often descending to the greatest depths, a few entering fresh 

 waters. Many are known to undergo very striking metamor- 

 phoses, the pellucid, strongly compressed larvae (Leptocephalus) 

 having long been a puzzle to naturalists. 



1 Cf. L. Jacoby, Zcitsc.hr, Gcs. Naturw. 1867, p. 257. 



