OSTEOLOGY <>K TILE-FISH. 



85 



and the supraoccipital extended forward between the frontals and produced back 

 ward between the exoccipitals to the foramen magnum. Furthermore, the thoracic 

 region is sharply marked oil* from the caudal, while in Malacanthus it is. as i( were, 

 continued into the caudal portion of the vertebral column. 



jaro. 



Cranium of Lopholatilus, left lateral aspei 



therefore seem best to separate Malacanthus 



opo 



its allies and 



It would therefore seem best to separate Malacanthus from the three 

 other genera and consider them as forming the family Latilidse,, as proposed bv 

 Doctor Gill. 



A still more marked difference exists between Latilus and 

 I 'In I In/ must, /• in the fact that the 

 latter docs not possess a myo- 

 dome and also lacks the basi- 

 sphenoid. The skull of Bathy- 

 mastt r is smooth, depressed, and 

 has a small supraoccipital shut 

 out from the foramen magnum; 

 the vertebral column comprises 

 If thoracic and 38 caudal ver- 

 tebrae besides a Hemivertebra, 

 this being double the number 

 found in any of the Latilidse. 

 The arrangement of the para- 

 pophyses in Bathymaster is also 

 quite different from that in the 

 other genera; there is a closed 

 canal beneath the eleventh to 



Cranium "i" Lopholalihis, posterior aspect. 



sixteenth thoracic vertebrae, formed by the inward extension of a process from the 

 parapophysis of either side, so that these are united below the centra. Bathymaster 

 furthermore presents a peculiarity in the shoulder girdle, having the hypocoracoid 

 prolonged beneath and in contact with the fourth, or lowest actinost, while in the 



