The Soft-finned Teleostei 



355 



descendant Osteoglossidae. The Notopteridae, and more 

 recently the now purely African family Mormyridae, also 

 the curious derivative and highly evolved family the Panto- 

 dontidae, that includes only the West African "freshwater 

 flying-fish," likewise the Phractolaemidae of the lower 

 Niger, and the Hyodontidae or Moon-eyes of western N. 

 xA-merica, all show interblended affinities with the Osteo- 

 glossidae, and doubtless had common ancestral origin. 



These families collectively must have overspread the 

 entire mid-Gondwana continent from western S. America 

 to eastern Australia. The accompanying diagram, in its 

 sectional outlines, indicates the present-day distribution of 

 these while the central grouping of them from eastern S. 

 America to central Africa, and thence to India sets forth 

 the probable area of Gondwana-land, as it existed toward 

 the close of the Cretaceous epoch. So as explained more 

 fully on a later page (p. 428) all of the above, as well as 

 the Albulidae, might appropriately be united into a cohort, 

 the Dapedoglossales. 



Fig. 57. Distributional outlines of six related freshwater fami- 

 lies, also of an allied and probably derived marine family, the 

 Albulidae. The intercontinental connecting lines indicate the form- 

 er existence of a N. Atlantis bridge, a S. Atlantis bridge, and an 

 Afro-Indian bridge. 



