218 DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



The fish was preserved in brine, and has now become so fragile that it must be given 

 to the osteologist to be prepared as a skeleton. Mr. Lucas has found in front of the rayed 

 portion of the dorsal fin numerous groupsof cartilaginous plates representing interneurals, 

 but no rays can be found supj ported by them, lie counted 70 vertebrae and observed what 

 appear to be rudiments of a pelvis, but uo traces of ventral fins. 



Family GRAMMICOLEPIDIDiE. 



Orammicolepidida; Poky, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat., ii, 1S73. 



Scombroidea, having a compressed body covered with vertical, linear scales. Mouth 

 small, terminal; teeth minute, asperities on the jaws. Lateral line sinuous, unarmed. Two 

 dorsals, the first very short, triangular, anal preceded by two short, .stout, separate spines. 

 Caudal vertebrae numerous. 



GRAMMICOLEPIS, Poey. 



Grammicolepis, Poey, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat., II, 1873, 00.— Shufeldt, Joupd. of Morphology, il, 1888, 

 272-296, with 13 figures. 



Grammicolepids with body deep, compressed, large eye, small mouth, head and oper- 

 cula partly rugose ; teeth miiuite, and absent from the palatines. Pectoral short and rounded. 

 Dorsal, anal, and pectoral branched. 



GRAMMICOLEPIS BEACHIUSCULUS, Poey (Figure 221). 

 Grammicolepis hrachiuseulus, POBY, loe. cit. — Shufeldt, Ioc. cit. 



The length of this extraordinary fish is 470 millimeters. The head enters five times 

 into the total length of the body, and 25 times into its greatest dejpth. The body is much 

 compressed, and quite deep. The very large eye is contained 2J times in the length of the 

 head, and lacks the mcmhrana ud'qmsa. 



The luanchial apertures are deeply cleft, but I fail to find more than four branchiostegal 

 rays, without being able to assert that there may not be a greater number of them. The 

 snout is short. The prefrontal, the turbinal, and the anterior suborbital are exti'emely hard, 

 and covered Avith spiny rugosities. The preoperculum and interoperculum have rugose 

 borders, while the remaining opercular bones are entirely so. The mouth is small, sub- 

 vertically cleft; the prenuixillary process is large, and is lodged in a fossa of the cranium. 

 The maxillary is complicated. The teeth are simjuy a narrow row of minute prickles; they 

 do not occur upon the vomer nor the palatines. 



The leading spine of the first dorsal .series is rugose, as is the first ventral, the two 

 postanals, and the external ones of the tail, which latter show the condition equally well in 

 either one. 



Tlie rays of the pectoral, second dorsal, and the anal fins are compressed, and do not 

 ramify at their extremities. The pectorals are very short and rounded. On the other 

 hand, the vertical fins, the dorsal, and anal are well developed. 



The tail was injured and apparently cut; the membrane which unites its rays had dis- 

 appeared; the peduncle which supports it is large, and capable of communicating a power- 

 ful impulse to the act of progression. The thoracic ventrals unquestionably possess a 

 rugose spine and C flexible ones that are branched. 



Aside from the frontal bones and the suborbitals where the skin abruptly terminates, 

 and the nasal portion of the snout, all the trunk and the head is covered with scales, includ- 

 ing the inferior mandible. 



The scales in no way resemble those found among the acantliopterygian fishes. Their 

 length greatly exceeds their width; they have the appearance of parchment^ — transparent, 

 brittle when dry — overlap each other, and are strengthened longitudinally by a raised 

 lineal ridge. 



Tlieir contact with each other is so extremely intimate that it lends to the skin of 

 either side a very smooth appearance — so much so, that the rough borders of the scales 

 would not be suspected without the aid of the fingers. 



