270 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 



is far behind the eye. No very definite indications of relationship either to the Percesoces 

 or to the typical percoids were noted. The articular processes of the premaxillse form broad 

 ovals, which resemble those seen in some of the Jugulares. A very peculiar character is 

 the presence of an antero-superior process on the metapterygoid, which process gains 

 contact with the skull roof in front of the very broad hyomandibular. Thus the palato- 

 quadrate arch is technically amphistylic, being supported both by its own process and by 

 the hyomandibular. This is a rare occurrence in teleosts and is doubtless merely a con- 

 vergent resemblance to the Palaeozoic coelacanths described by Watson and by Stensio. 



scale- 

 bone 



Fig. 146. A. Ophiocephalus. Top view. B. Anabas. 



The deep-bodied anabantoids are probably more primitive than the elongate ophio- 

 cephalids and are certainly more percoid in appearance. The genus Luciocephalus (Weber 

 and de Beaufort, 1922, p. 369) is long-bodied and pike-like, except for the small mouth. 

 This would seem to indicate that the anabantoids were originally short compressed forms 

 which had given off a long-bodied and pike-like branch. The skull form in general also 

 appears to favor Jordan's view (cited by Tate Regan) that the Ophiocephalidae are "de- 

 graded Anabantidae" in opposition to Tate Regan's view (1910a, p. 10) that the reverse is 



