Actlnopterygil — Fercomoi'pJd. 



119 



The Sparidae, or " Sea-breams," have numerous extinct 

 congeners. They are Perciform Acanthopterygians with a 

 curiously specialized dentition, the front teeth being usually 

 adapted for piercing and cutting, and those at the sides of the 

 mouth for crushing. Their earliest representatives, from the 

 Cretaceous of Mou.nt Lebanon, appear to be referable to the 

 living genera, Pagellus and Sarins ; and both these fishes are 

 again found in the Tertiaries, the former at Monte Bolca, and 

 the latter in Fi-ance and at Oran, Algeria. Sparnodus (Fig. 163) 

 is an extinct genus from Monte Bolca, having the teeth some- 

 what " spaced out " — hence the name. Soricideiis and Capitodiis 

 are founded upon detached teeth from various European Ter- 

 tiaries. Teeth of the living Chrysophrys are exhibited from 

 the Miocene of Malta, the Crag of Suffolk, and from probably 

 equivalent deposits in the Canary Islands. 



Table-cases, 

 Nos. 55, 56. 



l'"ia. 163. — :ijiai-rtodas ovalis, Ag. ; Upper Eocene, Monte Bolca. 



The Squaraipinnes are short, deep-bodied fishes, cliarac- Table-case, 

 terized, as their name denotes, by the extension of the scales ^°" ^' 

 over more or less of the dorsal and anal fins. The living forms 

 ("Coral-fishes") are mostly brightly coloured fishes w^hich 

 abound in the neig'hbourhood of Coral-reefs. Platyccn-mus, 

 from the Upper Cretaceous of Westphalia, seems to be their 

 earliest known representative ; and there are remains of 

 tScaiophagiis, and the living genera JEpliippium, Pomacatithiis, 

 Holacanthus, in the Eocene of Monte Bolca. Fygccus, from the 

 same formation, is also placed in this family. 



The Percidse, or Perch family, may perhaps be regarded as Wall-case 

 the highest — the most specialized — of Teleostean fishes ; they No. 18. 

 are well represented both in the freshwater and marine Tertiary 

 formations. The extinct genus Smerdis, with large deeply- 

 forked tail (Fig. 164), occurs in the Miocene of Ulm, Wilrtem- 

 berg, and Puy-de-D6me, France ; in the Upper Eocene of 

 Monte Bolca and Aix in Provence. Lates, Gyclopoma, and 

 species of the living marine genera, Dides, Serranus, Apogon, 

 Therapoii, and Pristipoma, are also found at Monte Bolca. 



Table-case, 

 No. 56. 



