GDfGLTMODI. 55 



Clastes cuneatus Cope. 



Proceedings American Philosophical Society, 1877, p. 9; (name only). 

 Plate I, fig. 6. 



This gar is represented by numerous specimens from the Manti Shales 

 of Central Utah, some of which are preserved almost entii-e. None of them 

 exceed a foot in length. I describe the best specimen accessible to me, a 

 small one, kindly lent me through Dr. Hayden by Mr. Bai-foot, director of 

 the museum of Salt Lake City. 



The proportions are rather stout, and the base of the ventral fin is a 

 little nearer the base of the tail than the end of the snout. The head is 

 not perfectly preserved, but its outline, as clearly defined on the slab of 

 limestone, is wedge-shaped, not longer than in Lepidosteus platystomus, but 

 narrower. This view is, however, partly profile. The posterior and infe- 

 rior borders of the operculum form a continuous segment of a circle, and 

 the depth of the suboperculum is .66 the horizontal width of the opercu- 

 lum. The preoperculum is superficially divided by transverse grooves into 

 four scuta, of which the superior is the largest ; they are ornamented with 

 small tubercles of ganoine. All the other bones, includirig the frontals, 

 present radiating lines of the tubercles which are capped with ganoine, 

 excepting on the operculum and suboperculum, where they form scarcely 

 interrupted ridges. The scales are smooth, even near the scapular arch, 

 and are arranged in eighteen or nineteen longitudinal series, as seen in an 

 oblique row directed obliquely upward from the ventral fin. Fulcra of the 

 ventral fin rather long and slender. The region of the dorsal fin is some- 

 what disturbed; the fin is in any case situated very far posteriorly; anal 

 and extremity of caudal fins wanting. 



Measurements. 



M. 



Axial length from end of mnzzle to base of caudal fin 215 



Axial length from end of muzzle to base of dorsal fin 182 



Axial length from end of muzzle to base of central fin 125 



Axial length from end of muzzle to edge of operculum 063 



Length of skull to preopercular border .049 



Depth of skuU at preopercular border 036 



Depth of body at ventral fin 050 



