FITCH and BARKER: FISH FAMILY MORIDAE 



a single plate. For this reason, E. manni can 

 not be assigned to family Moridae. 



Although Jordan (1921) reported that the 

 beautifully preserved type is "17 14 inches long," 

 and David (1943) lists it as being "355 + 35 = 

 390 mm [I51/2 inches] in length," we found that 

 it measures only 339 mm SL (13% inches), or 

 378 mm TL (14% inches). David's measure- 

 ment can be duplicated by including the lower 

 jaw and by failing to note where the caudal rays 

 actually terminate. Unfortunately, the lower 

 jaw became disarticulated and moved forward 

 during fossilization, so it cannot be used as a 

 point of reference in measuring total length. On 

 the other hand, the caudal appears to terminate 

 31 mm behind the hypural, but upon careful 

 scrutiny it can be seen that one or more of the 

 uppermost rays extend for 38 mm behind the 

 hypural. 



David's (1943) description of E. manni was 

 based on a composite of several specimens rep- 

 resenting at least two species and should be re- 

 garded as generally unreliable for characterizing 

 the species. 



ECLIPES EXTENSUS ]OKDAl<i, 1921 



The type specimen of E. extensus (Jordan's 

 No. 716) is the "tail only of a long and slender 

 fish." The hypural elements are in such a poor 

 state of preservation that we were unable to de- 

 termine what direction was dorsal, an opinion 

 shared by E. H. Ahlstrom (personal communi- 

 cation) . It appears to be a gadoid, but there are 

 no characters which will permit assignment to 

 a particular gadoid family. The long slender 

 vertebrae and strong neural and haemal spines 

 differ strikingly from those found in the other 

 three species ascribed to genus Eclipes. 



the configuration of Auchenoceros sagittae, but 

 the very short ostium precludes its being con- 

 generic. Karrer (1971) proposed the name 

 Actuariolum for this fossil and placed it in her 

 Pseudophycis-group, but we believe the very 

 short ostium of the fossil sagitta negates affilia- 

 tion with Pseudophycis. In fact A. bicaudatum 

 has sufficient anomalous characters to warrant 

 establishing a separate group for it and A. terak- 

 ohensis (Frost, 1933). The type series (three 

 otoliths) is from a Pukeuri road cut, north Otago, 

 in the Rifle Butts Formation, Awamoan Stage, 

 Pareora Series and is Lower Miocene in age 

 (J. A. Grant-Mackie, personal communication). 



ACTUARIOLUM TERAKOHENSIS 

 (FROST, 1933) 



This otolith described (as Physiculus terako- 

 hensis) from "the unique holotype" is the basis 

 for dating family Moridae from the Oligocene 

 (Berg, 1940). Karrer (1971) recognized its er- 

 roneous placement with Physiculus and assigned 

 it to her new genus Actuariolum. The holotype 

 is from the Golden Bay Cement Company's marl 

 pit at Tarakohe, Nelson, in the Tarakohe Mud- 

 stone, Altonian Stage, Southland Series which is 

 Lower Miocene in age, not Upper Oligocene as 

 originally reported by Frost (J. A. Grant-Mack- 

 ie, personal communication). 



While in New Zealand, one of us (Fitch) 

 examined more than a dozen otoliths of A. terak- 

 ohensis in the University of Auckland collections. 

 All of these were from the Paratoetoe Forma- 

 tion (Lower Miocene) at Parengarenga Harbor 

 on the North Island; otoliths associated with 

 them included myctophids, berycids, bregmacer- 

 otids, macrourids, gonostomatids, congrids, and 

 other deepwater forms as well as a few shallow- 

 water species. 



ACTUARIOLUM BICAUDATUM (FROST, 1924) 



In describing this otolith from New Zealand, 

 Frost (1924) noted that it "resembles in a re- 

 markable way the otolith of the living New Zea- 

 land species Physiculus [= Pseudophycis'} bac- 

 chus [sic] ." The broadly triangular, flared an- 

 terior end of this fossil resembles superficially 



LOTELLA ANDRUSSOVI (BOGACHEV, 1933) 



This species was assigned to genus Brosmiu^ 

 by Bogachev (1933) on the assumption that it 

 had but a single, elongate undifferentiated dorsal 

 fin. Danil'chenko (1953) determined that it did 

 in fact have two dorsal fins, and because of the 



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