8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. vu 



Scombrolabrax (see p. 33) closes the structural gap between the per- 

 coids and the scombroids, Gadopsis (see p. 26) that between the 

 percoids and the ophidioids, and a new family for which only a pro- 

 visional notice has so far been given (Haedrich, 1967b) is stated to be 

 intermediate between the percoids and the stromateoids. With such 

 gaps being filled in, the separation of perciform suborders into neat, 

 precisely definable pigeon holes becomes increasingly impossible. 



The classification of the Perciformes to suborder adopted here is 

 as follows: 



Order Perciformes 

 Suborder Mugiloidei 



" Anabantoidci 



" Percoidei 



" Kurtoidei 



" Acanthuroidei 



" Ophidioidei 



" Stromateoidei 



" Xiphioidei 



" Scombroidei 



" Gobioidei 



" Blennioidei 



" Schindlerioidei 



"Protopercoid" Suborders 



Though the great majority of modern perciform fishes belong to 

 to the basal suborder Percoidei and its derivatives, there are two 

 groups that at least may have developed from a "protopercoid" 

 stock, namely the Mugiloidei and Anabantoidei. 



The main, and only significant reason for considering this possi- 

 bility is that the Mugiloidei always and the Anabantoidei often lack 

 a direct articulation between the pelvic bones and the cleithra. This 

 condition suggests the subabdominal pelvic position of prepercoid 

 orders. Various interpretations are possible, however, and I am not 

 sure which one is correct. First, as already suggested, the Mugiloidei 

 and/or Anabantoidei may have evolved from a protopercoid stock in 

 which a direct connection between the pelvics and cleithra had not 

 yet developed. A variant of this hypothesis, again postulating a 

 protopercoid ancestry for the Mugiloidei and/or Anabantoidei, would 

 be that in the protopercoids, as in the berycoids, the pelvic-cleithral 

 relationship remained variable, a more or less fixed articulation be- 

 tween the two elements only becoming established at the percoid stage 

 of development. Under this thesis, the Mugiloidei would represent the 

 nonarticulated aspect of protopercoid inheritance, whereas in the 

 Anabantoidei the whole gamut of protopercoid pelvic variation still 

 would be represented. Conversely, it may be, as Dollo (1909) has 

 suggested, that the lack of a pelvic-cleithral articulation in the 



