The Osteology of the Scombriclse. 



83 



DIAGRAM. 



■iy/ ACAjrrHocYBnrM 



SCOMBER 



A. The characters of Scomber. 



B. The acquirement of the interposed opisthotics. 



C. The Thnnnius type of cranial crests, and the inferior cranial pit indi- 

 cated, with the Scomheromorus type of ethmoid and nasals. 



D. The inferior cranial pit excluding the pterotic from the brain cavity, 

 and the condition of the ethmoid and nasals of Scomber. 



E. The condition of the infra-vertebral processes from which Auxis and 

 Euthynnus have diverged. 



F. The Scomheromorus type of cranial crests, elongate form, concave eth- 

 moid, and nonprojectlng nasals. 



In the following pages the osteology of the genera is described in 

 greater detail. 



SCOMBER.' 

 A specimen of Scomber japonica, Ilouttuyn, 11 inches in length, from the 

 Canary Islands, and a skull of a slightly larger specimen of the same species 

 from Peru. 



The supraoccipital crest is developed backwards in a long spatnlate 

 process, which is free from the exoccipitals below. On top of the 

 craninm it is only slightly developed, and is carried forward by the 

 frontals to opposite the beginning of the posterior third of the orbital 



'For descriptions in detail of the osteology of Scomber see the beautifully 

 illustrated work by Edward Phelps Allis, Jr., entitled "The Skull, and the 

 Cranial and First Spinal Muscles and Nerves in Scomber scomber." Jour. 

 Morph., Vol. xvii, 1903. 



