﻿5l6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 48 



sidered by Volta to belong to the recent Lophiits piscatorius; later 

 (1835) it was named by Agassiz as a new species of Lophiits (L. 

 brachysomus) . As A. S. Woodward (1901) has remarked, "it 

 seems to be rightly placed here." It is probably otherwise with the 

 so-called Lopliiits patagonicus named by Ameghino (1899). This 

 was based upon teeth from a Patagonian bed supposed to be of 

 cretaceous age. 



IX 

 The nearest relations of the Anglers — the Antennariids — differ 

 very decidedly in being compressed rather than depressed. This 

 difference might lead the observer "to assume that the shape of the 

 head was equally different, but such is not the case, and the char- 

 acteristic is chiefly superficial. The difference may be compared to 

 that between an old-fashioned table with two folding sides, open 

 and closed. The Angler is analogous to the table with the sides 

 upraised and level with the middle ; the Antennariid, to the table with 

 the sides inclined to right angles with the middle. The cranium is 

 essentially similar in both and the difference in physiognomy is the 

 resultant of the spreading outwards of the opercular and other 

 lateral bones in one form (the Angler), and the folding downwards 

 or compression of the corresponding elements in the other (the 

 Antennariid). While such are the facts, however, there are never- 

 theless many minor characteristics or details of structure which ai : 

 associated with the ones noted and which demonstrate the natural 

 character of each group. 



