228 



DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



OREOSOMA ATLANTIC UM, Cuvier and Valenciennes. 



Ortosoma atlantieum, Cuvier and Valenciennes, hjr. <it., pi. xcix. — (JCntiier, loc. cit. 



An Oreosoma, described as having 25 or 2G large, conical, bony protuberances, four of 

 which are on the back. 



Radial formula: D. v, 29; A. 26; V. 1,5. 



This remarkable form is known only from a single specimen, obtained by Peron, the 

 French navigator, in " the Atlantic Ocean." It was probably taken in the surface net. The 

 type is 16 lines in length. A full description is given by Cuvier and Valenciennes, who 

 refer to it as a little fish, whose height is equal to its length; covered with great cones, so 

 rugged and bold that a drawing of it resembles a map of a volcanic country. 

 Its affinities are believed by some ichthyologists to be Berycoid. 



Family CAPROID^E, 



(a inula, Lowe, Fishes of Madeira, XII, 1843. — Gill, Arrangement of the Families of Fishes, 1872, 9. (No. 



90.) 

 Caproidte, Gill, Century Dictionary, 809. 



Scombroidea with compressed and elevated body, covered with small, ctenoid scales; 

 upper jaw protractile; vertebra very numerous; dorsal in two parts; ventrals with 1 

 spine and 5 rays; teeth very small. 



KEY TO THE GENERA. 



I. Mouth very protractile; teeth in jaws, vomer, and palatines Capros 



II. Mouth less protractile; teeth in jaws Antigonia 



Capros aper (after Cuvier.) 



CAPROS, Laeepede. 



Capros, Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., iv, p. 590. — Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., x, p. 29. — 

 Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1862, p. 127. 



Body compressed and elevated; mouth very protractile. Scales rather small, spiny. 

 Two contiguous dorsals, the first with 9 spines, the anal with 3. No bony plates along 



