1 4 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



The name Teleostei*^ has proved far too useful to be banished from nontechnical 

 literature, whatever its fate may be in technical writings; we urge that it be trans- 

 literated henceforth to fit the language in which an author may be writing; for example, 

 teleosts in English, teleosteens in French, Teleostier in German, etc.*^ However, the 

 sooner "Ganoidea" and "ganoids" be relegated to oblivion the better, for the groups 

 of living or extinct fishes** that were united under this name by Miiller (55: 203) 

 and that have been grouped similarly by subsequent authors do not represent a 

 natural assemblage. 



Orders of the Subclass Actinopterygii. The various classifications that have been pro- 

 posed for the living ray-finned fishes since the appearance in 1844 of Muller's classic 

 "system" (5J: 201-204**) have been reviewed by Lonnberg (jj: 2-62), by Berg (4), 

 and more recently by Matsubara (^7: 1—54). Hence it seems sufficient to remark here 

 that the number of Orders that have been recognized within the Subclass Actinopter- 

 ygii during the past 50 years or so has ranged from nine by Goodrich (jo: x-xvii) 

 and 12 by Romer (75: 579-585) to 24 by Matsubara (^7), 32 by Regan {Gy: 76-82), 

 "^^d by Schultz and Stern {jy. 220-247), 43 by Jordan (59), 44 by Berg (4), and 35 

 by Bertin and Arambourg (jr: 1978— 198 i). This clearly illustrates the diversity of 

 opinions and conclusions at which eminent students have arrived from consideration of 

 essentially the same facts. 



Part 3 of this series of volumes deals with the Acipenseroidei (sturgeons) of the 

 western North Atlantic, with such of the Lepisostei (gars) as enter brackish or salt water, 

 and with part of the Isospondyli, namely the Elopoidea (Elopidae, Albulidae), Clupeoidea 

 (Engraulidae and Clupeidae, with only interim accounts of Alepocephalidae and Searsii- 

 dae), and Salmonoidea (Salmonidae, Coregonidae, and Osmeridae). Parts 4 and 5 deal 

 with the remainder of the Isospondyli, the Iniomi, the Giganturoidei, and the Lyomeri. 



Order of Presentation. Since it is not possible to represent the true interrelation- 

 ships of different large groups of animals on the printed page, any sequence of pres- 

 entation that may be adopted (other than an alphabetical one) must necessarily be 

 artificial. This would be true even if the taxonomic units in question could be traced 

 back through the ages to their earliest known fossil ancestors and even if we had a 

 uniform yardstick by which we could measure the relative extent to which the dif- 

 ferent groups have diverged during their evolutionary histories. In any general account 

 of a group as large and as varied as the bony fishes, the most one can hope for is that 

 the sequence of treatment — Orders within Subclasses, and Families within Orders — 

 shall be consistent with animal affinities "insofar as is practical" (7^: 13). The sequence 

 followed here represents a compromise between antiquity of ancestry, degree of special- 

 ization, and accepted precedent. 



4z. From the Greek teleos (meaning perfected or completed) and ostean (meaning bone). 



43. Ichthyostes, as used by Moreau (5/: 2; 52: 89), is an equivalent. 



44. Among living fishes — the sturgeon family, the paddlefish family, the polypteroids, and the gars. For a list (per- 

 haps only partial) of the various extinct groups that have been joined together recently as "Ganoidei," see 

 Jordan (39: 111-116). 



45. For other places of publication, see Dean (79: 174). 



