44 FOSSIL FISHES OF LOMPOC 



head, snout 3y 2 , head large, its depth not less than that of body at dorsal, 

 orbital region crossed by a marked interorbital' shelf. Dorsal rays 10, 

 anal 10 to 12 ; vertebrae 20 + 14 = 34. Opercle well developed, broadly 

 rounded. Vertebrae strong, longer than deep, maintaining their strength 

 well backward, nine or ten before the dorsal. Neurals and haemals 

 strongly developed in the caudal region, but obliterated anteriorly. Hy- 

 pural plate obscure. Head and mouth large, jaws subequal, the mandible 

 reaching to opposite the eye. Dorsal fin relatively large, opposite the 

 moderate ventrals, its insertion very slightly behind the middle of dis- 

 tance from front of eye to base of caudal ; pectorals narrow, slender, in- 

 serted low as in other herring-like fish ; ventrals shorter than pectorals, 

 the number of rays indistinct ; anal longer and lower than the dorsal, 

 its rays more numerous ; caudal broadly forked, its lobes long, subequal, 

 a little greater than depth of body, one and one-fifth times in head. 



This little fish is certainly congeneric with QLLESITA QUISQUILIA, de- 

 scribed and figured by us from Miocene shales at El Modena, California, 

 in our Fossil Fishes of Southern California, Plate XVII. It differs in the 

 rather stouter form and fewer vertebras. In Q. QUISQUILIA we find 38 

 vertebrae, 13 before dorsal. QU^SITA ALH AMERCE, above described, has 

 the head more depressed, the insertion of the dorsal fin much farther back 

 than in Q. QUISQUILIA, and the vertebrae apparently 31. In most respects 

 it is very similar. 



This example is from a diatomaceous shale lying just above a Mio- 

 cene ledge. Its age is almost certainly Pliocene. As to the locality, 

 Dr. Gilbert writes that the fish was secured while on a trip with Mr. 

 Robert Hastings Palmer of Stanford. The reason why he places it as 

 Pliocene is because in Los Angeles city he finds a division line which 

 is likely between the upper Miocene and lower Pliocene, and this outcrop 

 has certain clams in abundance at this particular horizon, similar to those 

 at San Pedro. The superimposed layers of Pliocene lie unconformable 

 to the stratum in question. 



