46 FOSSIL FISHES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 



hypural, which in turn has no neck but branches quickly into the t\vo 

 supporting elements; the upper 5 mm. longer than the lower and sup- 

 porting the longer fin rays. Strength 'of the vertebrae carried far back- 

 ward (to the twentieth), the intervertebral cartilage plates standing quite 

 oblique in the middle region. 



Subopercle and inter<5percle strong, the former half-way to the base 

 of the pectoral from the opercle and ending with a rounded obtuse angle. 

 The outlines of other bones of head not defined and the backward extent 

 of the maxillaries is not shown. The extent of the teeth cannot be 

 determined since the premaxillary is broken and the inferior arrange- 

 ment of the teeth is much distorted. 



Five teeth occur in the maxillaries in the space of 7 mm. and ten 

 teeth or definite impressions of teeth occur in the mandible in a space 

 of 20 mm., and spaces apparently for two more are found, one between 

 the fourth and fifth and the other between the last two. The faintest 

 impressions of tiniest structures appear back of this row and to one 

 side which may have been made by groups of villiform teeth. Between 

 the two jaws lie broken fragments of teeth and impressions of others 

 likely from the dentary. The dental surface is two-fifths of the length 

 of the lower jaw, which is nearly half the length of the head. 



The genus LOPHAR agrees with POMATOMUS in the general form, 

 in the number of vertebrae, the form of the mouth, the weak spinous 

 dorsal (obliterated in the type) the feeble anal spines and especially in 

 the long and low soft dorsal and anal which are about equal in form and 

 extent. This condition is not found among the PERCIFORM fishes, and 

 but rarely outside of the allies of CARANX and some other aberrant 

 mackerels. The CARANGIN^E all show caudal scutes, of which no trace 

 is found on our specimen. As in POMATOMUS, the preopercle seems to be 

 weakly serrated. 



LOPHARI (XocpcxQi), according to Forskal, is the modern Greek name 

 of the Blue-fish (POMATOMUS SALTATRIX L.) at Constantinople. At 

 Athens, as shown by Hoffman and Jordan, 13 it is yo^cpcxQi or ycxpcxQi, 

 a name probably more primitive than taxpctQi and which Hoffman derives 

 from yovcpot;, a spike. 



13 Proc. A cad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1892, p. 230. 



