CHARACTERS OF THE ORDER HAPLOMI. 26 1 



of a ligament ; superior pharyngeals ankylosed into a single 

 elongate bone on each side, and covered with about sixty rows 

 of very fine close set bristle-like teeth, which grow larger pos- 

 teriorly ; lower pharyngeals large, joined along their entire inner 

 edge (not ankylosed) to form a single concave surface, curved to 

 coincide with the convex superior pharyngeals, covered with 

 teeth similar to those above, but longer and more bristle-like 

 anteriorly ; interhyal absent ; other hyoid bones normal ; very 

 large parapophyses present on all abdominal vertebrae, growing 

 larger to the fourth pair, thence smaller posteriorly ; none of 

 them transversely connected ; the ribs attached to their tips. 



Superfamily Amblyopsoidea. 



Ethmoid an unpaired median bone ; metapterygoid present 

 above a normal symplectic ; palatine and pterygoid both pres- 

 ent ; the former with teeth ; premaxillaries with small backward 

 extending processes ; three tooth bearing superior pharyngeals 

 present on each side ; posttemporal forked and normally attached 

 to cranium, the upper limb directly to epiotic, the lower by a short 

 ligament to the opisthotic ; supraclavicle well developed ; post- 

 clavicle absent ; hypercoracoid entirely containing its foramen ; acti- 

 nosts as in the Pceciliida; ; upper end of clavicle attached to first 

 vertebra by a ligament ; pelvic girdle composed of two small simple 

 rays tapering forward and apparently not in contact with each 

 other ; ventral fins sometimes absent ; parapophyses present on 

 all abdominal vertebrae ; the caudal supporting haemal spines 

 ank) losed to their centra ; posterior vertebrae not tilted up ; vent 

 close behind isthmus. 



Family AMBLYOPSID/E. 



Characters as indicated by Auiblyopsis spelcens. 



Interorbital septum double, the sides widely separated ; no 

 myodome ; no lateral process from parasphenoid to alisphenoid, 

 but the latter developed downward to the side of the former 

 largely enclosing the side of the cranium anterior to the prootic ; 

 no supraoccipital crest developed ; occipital condyle partly formed 

 by the exoccipitals, which are widely separated by the basioc- 

 cipital ; opisthotic well developed ; parasphenoid very wide, ante- 



