FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 70, NO. 3 



up several sagittae which match all salient char- 

 acters of the fossil Actuariolum. In the illus- 

 trated specimens (from Eltanin station 1851, 

 lat 49°40'S, long 178°53'E, 476-540 m) which 

 are 5.2 and 4.2 mm long (Figures 5A and 5B) 

 the ostium measures 1.7 and 1.2 mm; the crista 

 superior, 2.9 and 2.6 mm; and the crista inferior, 

 3.3 and 2.9 mm, respectively. 



For comparison, measurements of the illus- 

 trated fossil sagittae {A. terakohensis from the 

 Paratoetoe Formation, Lower Miocene, Paren- 

 garenga Harbour, Figures 5C and 5D) are: total 

 length, 2.9 and 3.0 mm; ostium, 0.9 and 1.0 mm; 

 crista superior, 1.4 and 1,6 mm; and crista in- 

 ferior, 1.9 and 1.9 mm, respectively. 



Additional specimens of the undescribed spe- 

 cies were trawled at Eltanin station 1411 at lat 

 51°00'S, long 162°01'E in 333 to 371 m. All 

 morids from these two stations are in the U.S. 

 National Museum fish collections (Hugh H. De- 

 Witt, personal communication) ; those from sta- 

 tion 1851 appear to represent an undescribed 

 species. 



THE MORID CAUDAL SKELETON 



The morid caudal skeleton (Figure 6) not 

 only is unique among gadoids, it is unique among 

 teleosts. The two lowermost hypurals (1 and 2 

 of Rosen and Patterson, 1969) are fused at their 

 base, which lies adjacent to the penultimate ural 

 vertebra, but are otherwise autogenous. Above 

 these, hypurals 3, 4, and 5 diverge posteriorly 

 as separate entities from the ultimate ural verte- 

 bra. Among other gadoids, hypurals 1 and 2 are 



Figure 6. — Caudal skeleton of Antimora microlepis. 



fused into a single plate, as are hypurals 3, 4, 

 and 5. 



The remaining caudal skeleton, although typ- 

 ical for all morids examined, is not unique to 

 family Moridae. Anterior to the dorsalmost hy- 

 pural, there are successively: two autogenous 

 epurals with bases adjacent to the penultimate 

 ural vertebra, a neural spine arising from the 

 first preural centrum, a free-floating splinter 

 bone (dorsal accessory bone of Rosen and Pat- 

 terson, 1969), and then neural spines on suc- 

 cessive centra. Preceding the lowermost (first) 

 hypural is an autogenous parhypural with its 

 base adjacent to the penultimate ural centrum, 

 a haemal spine affixed to the first preural verte- 

 bra, a free-floating ventral accessory bone, and 

 then haemal spines on successive centra. The 

 two epurals and the parhypural are present in 

 most other gadoids, but the autogenous splinter 

 bones (dorsal and ventral accessory bones) may 

 or may not be present depending upon which 

 gadoid genus is being examined. 



Thus in any fossil skeletal imprint, if one could 

 locate either the autogenous lowermost hypurals 

 (1 and 2) M^th their fused base, or the diverging 

 uppermost hypurals (3, 4, and 5) which project 

 posteriorly from the ultimate ural centrum, the 

 imprint unquestionably would be that of a morid, 



FOSSIL MORIDS 



The fossil record for family Moridae is based 

 upon an abundance of skeletal imprints and oto- 

 liths, primarily from the Northern Hemisphere, 

 Most of these were described prior to 1940, and 

 most were placed in family Gadidae, which at 

 that time included the morids. Danil'chenko 

 (1953) was the first to assign fossil gadoids to 

 family Moridae, but included Melanonus which 

 Marshall (1965) subsequently removed to its 

 its own family. In 1960, Danil'chenko suggested 

 that Eclipes from the Californian Miocene was 

 a morid, and at the same time he removed to 

 family Brotulidae one of the species he consid- 

 ered a morid in 1953, 



In our search for diagnostic characters which 

 we could use to evaluate the fossil record, we 

 found that only three features were infallible 

 for distinguishing members of family Moridae: 



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