A REVIEW OF THE SYNENTOGNATHOUS FISHES OF 



JAPAN. 



By David Starr Jordan and Edwin Chapin Starks, 



Of the Leland Stanford Junior University. 



In this paper is g-iven an account of those fishes of Japan belonging 

 the suborder of SynentognatJu. The material examined belongs to 

 he United States National Museum and to the Leland Stanford Junior 

 Jniversity, most of it having been collected by Messrs. Jordan and 

 >nyder during the summer of 1900. 



Suborder SYNENTOGNATHI. 



Lower pharyngeal bones fully united; second and third superior 

 iharyngeals variously enlarged, not articulated to the cranium, send- 

 qg processes forward; the fourth small or fused with the third, 

 /'ertebra; numerous (45 to TO), the abdominal ones much more 

 lumerous than the caudal. Ventral fins abdominal, without spine, 

 he rays more than five. Scapula suspended to the cranium by a 

 )Ost-temporal bone, which is usually simple, furcate in Bdonidx. 

 i^rticular bone of lower jaw with a small supplemental bone perhaps 

 •orrcsponding to the coronoid bone. Parietal bones usually absent, 

 yhen present much reduced, well separated by the supraoccipital. 

 pupraclavicle small when present; no interclavicles. No mesocora- 

 i'oid. Maxillary very close to premaxillary and sometimes firmly 

 joined to it, the suture always distinct. Basis of cranium double in 

 I'ront, but without muscular tube. No adipose fin. Fins without 

 ;pines. Lateral line concurrent with the belly, peculiar in structure. 

 Vir bladder usually large, without pneumatic duct. Intestinal tract 

 iimple, without pyloric cseca. This order is allied to the Haplomi on 

 he one hand and to the Percesoces on the other, and, like these 

 groups, it marks the transition from the soft-rayed to the spiny-rayed 

 ishes. In their anatomical characters the Synentognathl most resem- 

 )le the latter, but there are never spines in the fins, and the lower 

 pharyngeals are united. The group is divisil)le into four closely 

 •elated families, which have usually ))een regarded as di visions of one 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXVI-No. 1319, 

 Proc. N. M. vol. xxvi— 02 36 ^^ 



