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 ])re]>are(l as a skeleton. Mr. Lucas has found in front of the rayed 

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

 but no rays can be found su]>ported by tlieni. lie counted 70 vertebrae and observed what 

 appear to he rudiments of a pelvis, but no traces of ventral tins. 



Family GRAlMMICOLEPIDIDiE. 



Grammicolepulidip, Poet, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat., ii, 1873. 



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

 Caudal vertebrai numerous. 



GRAMMICOLEPIS, Poey. 



Orammicolepis, PoEV, Aual. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat., II, 1S73, 00. — Shufeldt, .Joiipd. of Morphology, ii, 1888, 

 272-296, with 13 figures. 



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

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

 Dorsal, aual, and pectoral branched. 



GRAMMICOLEPIS BRACHIUSCULUS, Poey (Figure 221). 

 Grammicolepis brachiusculus, Poey, loc. cit. — Shufeldt, lor. cit. 



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

 into the total length of the body, and 2'tf times into its greatest depth. The body is much 

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

 head, and lacks the memhrana adipom. 



The branchial apertures are deeply cleft, but I fail to find more than foiu: branchiostegal 

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

 snout is short. The prefrontal, the tuibinal, aiul the anterior sub(u-bital are extremely hard, 

 and covered with spiny rugosities. The ineoperculum and interoperculum have rugose 

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

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

 Tiie maxillary is complicated. The teeth are simply 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 ecpially well in 

 either one. 



The 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 supjiorts 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 6 flexible ones that are branched. 



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

 and the nasal ])ortion of the snout, all the trunk and the head is covered with scales, incdud- 

 ing the inferior mandihle. 



Tlie scales in no way resemble those found among the acanthopterygian fishes. Their 

 length greatly exceeds their width; they have the api)earance of parchment— transparent, 

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

 lineal ridge. 



Their contact with each other is so extremely intimate that it lends to the «kin of 

 either side a very smooth api)earance— so much so, that the rough borders of the scales 

 would not be suspected without the aid of the fingers. 



