FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 70, NO. 3 



present, representing 27 and 10 "^^r of the total 

 otolith yield. Subsequently, Zinsmeister (1971) 

 reported otoliths of P. rastrelliger from one of 

 these same two deposits (LACM Invert. Paleo. 

 Loc. 471) but did not give data on numerical 

 abundance. One of us (Fitch) has found otoHths 

 of P. rastrelliger in other southern Californian 

 Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits at San Diego 

 (LACM Invert. Paleo. Loc. 305) , Newport Beach 

 (Jamboree Blvd.) , and near Rincon Point, Santa 

 Barbara County (Bates Road) , and a Centerville 

 Beach locality (south Humboldt Bay) investi- 

 gated by Barker also has yielded fair numbers. 

 The Centerville Beach deposit appears to be of 

 Pliocene age and represents the farthest north 

 the species has been found. 



ECLIPES VETERNUS JORDAN AND 

 GILBERT, 1919 



The type specimen of E. veternus, now in the 

 California Academy of Sciences collection, is an 

 incomplete (tail missing) , poorly preserved skel- 

 etal imprint with the head rotated into a dif- 

 ferent alignment than the body. Jordan and 

 Gilbert (1919) placed this small fish in family 

 Apogonidae, but did not feel strongly regarding 

 this assignment. Subsequently, Jordan (1921) 

 moved it into family Gadidae, where it was re- 

 tained by David (1943). Danirchenko (1960), 

 although he did not examine the type, felt that 

 the genus Eclipes was much more closely related 

 to family Moridae than Gadidae. However, the 

 characters he used to support this opinion are 

 not unique to the morids, either by themselves 

 or in combination. 



A careful examination of the type specimen 

 revealed that not only is the type description 

 wholly unreliable, there is no character or com- 

 bination of characters that will permit assign- 

 ing this small fish to any gadoid family. Only 

 because of its small size, flattened anterior neur- 

 al spines, and the shape, placement, and extent 

 of its dorsal and anal fins can it be associated 

 with other fossil gadoids in the Miocene diato- 

 mites and shales of California. Since E. veternus 

 is the type species of Eclipes, but is not a morid, 

 the name Eclipes is not available for use in fa- 

 mily Moridae. 



MERRIAMINA ECTENES JORDAN 

 AND GILBERT, 1919 



The identity of this little fish presents an enig- 

 ma. In describing M. ectenes, Jordan and Gil- 

 bert (1919) placed it in family Brotulidae and 

 designated specimen number XIII as the type. 

 Their caption for Figure 1, Plate XXVII (Jor- 

 dan and Gilbert, 1919) reads "Merriamina ecte- 

 nes Jordan & Gilbert; type XIII (El Modena)," 

 but the illustrated slab (Figure 1) clearly is 

 labeled "XII." 



In checking Jordan's fossils in the California 

 Academy of Sciences collection we found their 

 specimen XIV (Figure 3, Plate XXVII), which 

 now bears in Lore David's handwriting the in- 

 scription "Merriamina ectenis [sic] type El Mo- 

 dena = Eclipes veternus," but we were unable 

 to locate the type (XIII), the illustrated "type" 

 (XII) , or specimen CVII from which Jordan and 

 Gilbert obtained their vertebral count. In the 

 text (p. 56-57) , they mentioned examining seven 

 different specimens of M. ectenes and gave num- 

 bers for each of these, but "XII," the specimen 

 illustrated as the type, is not listed, which leads 

 us to believe that the use of "XIII" in the text 

 and figure caption might have been a typograph- 

 ical error. In any event, the photograph of spec- 

 imen XII (Figure 1, Plate XXVII) shows a 

 poorly preserved gadoid-like fish with what is 

 obviously a regenerated caudal fin. Thus, if spe- 

 cimen XII is in fact the type, Merrimnina ectenes 

 cannot be assigned to a family with any certain- 

 ty, even though Jordan (1921) subsequently de- 

 clared M. ectenes a synonym of Eclipes vetermis 

 and placed it in family Gadidae. 



Jordan and Gilbert's other illustrated speci- 

 men (XIV), part of the type series, has hypural 

 elements 3, 4, and 5 fused into a single plate, 

 so it cannot be a morid (E. H. Ahlstrom, personal 

 communication). 



ECLIPES M^NN/ JORDAN, 1921 



An examination of the caudal complex on 

 Jordan's type specimen (No. 543), now in the 

 California Academy of Sciences collection, re- 

 vealed that hypurals 3, 4, and 5 are fused into 



578 



