GREGORY: FISH SKULLS 



329 



some species of Sebastolobus the skull became long and narrow, the bones extremely thin 

 and the mucous cavities on the suborbitals, preoperculars and frontals quite large; in 

 another direction, certain species of Scorpana became very broadheaded, the bones very 

 dense, with smooth, ivory-like surfaces, the spikes numerous and sharp. In Pterois the 

 dorsal fin spines are much prolonged and the color patterns are bizarre and supposedly 

 terrifying. The fish has been seen to snap up small fish that actually drift toward it 

 (Breder, 1932). The skull (Fig. 205) is a moderately specialized derivative of the scorpaenid 

 type, with thin spineless bones and depressed opercular. 



In Pelor japonicum (Fig. 206) the broad short skull has the orbits on top, like those of a 

 hippopotamus; the broad mouth opens upward; the upper lip being raised very high up, 

 the parts of the suspensorium and jaws are correspondingly modified. 



Synanceja (Fig. 207) is a highly peculiar genus which is even more specialized than 

 Pelor. An accurate description of the skull has been given by Leighton Kesteven (1926, pp. 



Synanceja horrida 



Fig. 207. Synanceja. Skull re-drawn from Leighton Kesteven's figure. 



224-230). The top of the skull is like a "Turkish saddle" with high supraorbital protuber- 

 ances on top of the frontals and a suddenly elevated occiput. The eyes are very small and 

 so are the orbits. The mouth and jaws are directed sharply upward. Leighton Kesteven 

 remarks that the synanceian skull presents several characteristics "which make its inclusion 

 in the present company (Scleroparei) seem a mesalliance; much more do these characteristics 

 appear in evidence against the inclusion of the genus in the Scorpaenidae." He accordingly 

 makes it the type of a new family, the Synanceiidae; but a careful reading of this description 

 of the skull fails entirely to convince me that Synanceja is anything but a highly specialized 

 derivative of the scorpaenid type, much less modified away from that type than are the 

 triglids and dactylopterids. In a word, its habitus is new. and peculiar but its phylogenetic 

 heritage is thoroughly scorpaenid. 



Patacus (Fig. 208^) is another highly specialized scorpaenoid; the enlarged dorsal 

 fin has been prolonged forward above the swollen forehead and in front of the downwardly 

 and almost backwardly developed face. The general effect is ludicrously like the head of a 



