GREGORY: FISH SKULLS 



373 



a single superior pharyngeal present on each side. As opposing the idea of relationship, the 

 Batrachididae have five long actinosts, the posttemporal forms an Integral part of the 

 cranium, the palatine is normally joined to the pterygoid, and the mesopterygoid, meta- 

 pterygoid, alisphenoid, and basibranchials are present. 



pirn 



Gobiesox 



Fig. 250. Gobiesox. A. Top view. B. Underside view. 



As to the possible affinities with the Callionymidae, (Fig. 242), Starks writes as follows: 

 "The family Callionymidse resembles the Gobiesocidse in having no mesopterygoid or 

 metapterygoid, thus leaving the symplectic to form part of the anterior border of the cheek 

 bones, in having no myodome or suborbitals, in the ventrals being widely separated, as well 

 as in the general form of the body. The Callionymidae, however, possess some important 

 and well marked characters not possessed by the Gobiesocidae, and these probably more than 

 counterbalance the characters held in common. These characters are briefly: a spinous 

 dorsal present; the ethmoid extending back and forming a bony interocular septum; the 

 frontals reduced and occupying little more than the interorbltal space; the posttemporal 

 forming an integral part of the cranium; the actinosts all abutting against the hypocoracoid; 

 the hypercoracoid foramen between the coracoid elements cutting an equal notch from each; 



