GREGORY: FISH SKULLS 



275 



forward on the forehead. It also recalls the conditions in the boar-fishes (Caproidse). The 

 lateral occipital condyles meet below the foramen magnum and above the basioccipital 

 condyle, as in berycoids. The premaxillae and maxillae show none of the complexities of 

 those of the boar-fishes. 



Psettus. — This excessively deep-bodied fish (Fig. 297 B) of the family Monodactylidae 

 may be considered as an aberrant offshoot from near the base of the Scorpididae. Its skull 

 (No. 460, Brit. Mus. Nat. Hist.) is definitely more specialized than that of Scorpis in many 

 features, including the following: 



(1) The supraoccipital crest is produced forward, its anterior rim being inclined above 

 the frontals, which also send up paired median crests to meet'it. The cranial roof thus 

 forms a platform for the nuchal iin muscles as in Brama, Coryphcena and Felifer. 



(2) The mouth is small, the teeth numerous and closely packed. 



aln 



Platax teira 



Fig. 151. Platax teira. 



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