THE OSTEOLOGY AND MUTUAL EEL ATIOIS^ SHIPS OF 

 THE FISHES BELOJ^GING TO THE FAMILY 



SCOMBKID^. 



EDAYIN CHAPIN STARKS. 



This investigation of the osteology of the family Scombridge was 

 not undertaken to decide any question of obscure relationship of the 

 groups within the family to each other, but to serve as a foundation 

 for future work on the relationship of the many forms that have from 

 time to time been placed in families supposed to be more or less 

 closely related to the Scombridse, and known collectively as the group 

 Scombroidei — the mackerel-like fishes.^ 



Though the family Scombridse probably does not contain the most 

 primitive of the Scombroids it has served as a center around which 

 the more or less aberrant forms have been arranged, and is conse- 

 quently a convenient basis from which to work. 



The family may be characterized as follows : 



Bones all light and fibrous. 



Supraoccipital crest formed anteriorly by f rentals ; usually extend- 

 ing to the ethmoid. 



Supraoccipital not separating exoccipitals or epiotics, though more 

 or less completely covering the epiotic suture on the surface of the 

 skull, and sometimes the exoccipital suture.^ 



^This paper will be followed by others, each treating of a family, or of a 

 few related families, of the Scombroid fishes. Only mutual relationships 

 within tlie family will be discussed, though relationships between families 

 will be touched upon when it seems advisable. This latter question, however, 

 as well as the relationships of the group to other groups will be more fully 

 discussed in a final paper. 



-As this character can be seen only by bisecting the cranium it has scarcely 

 been reported upon. When a bone on the surface of the cranium covers a 

 suture between two other bones they are erroneously said to be separated by 

 that bone. Of the few Percoids examined for this character none were found 

 with the epiotics in contact with each other. 



The Journal of MonniOLOGY. — Vol. 21, No. 1. 



