October 22, inOO] 



SCIENCE- 



573 



In the evident close relationship of the fam- 

 ily Carangidas to the percoid fishes the present 

 writer wholly agrees. In working over the 

 osteology of the scombroid fishes, he has found 

 no character as yet by which these can be 

 sharply and entirely separated from the per- 

 coid fishes. 



This, however, is nothing new. It is well 

 kno^vn that the carangoids merge more or less 

 completely with the percoids, and so involve 

 the rest of the scombroids. But it does not 

 appear from Mr. Regan's paper why the other 

 scombroids should not follow the family Car- 

 angidffi into the group of percoid fishes. His 

 definition of the scombroids does not show 

 characters to exclude the family Carangidae. 

 The following is his diagnosis of the suborder 

 Scomberoidei as it stands with the carangoids 

 left out: 



Air-bladder without open duct. Maxillaries 

 more or less attached to non-protractile preraax- 

 illaries, which are typically produced and pointed 

 anteriorly. Cranium with the orbito-rostral por- 

 tion elongate and the postorbital portion abbre- 

 viate; parietals separated by the supraoccipital; 

 no orbitosphenoid; basisphenoid present; prooties 

 giidng rise to an osseous roof to the myodome. 

 Vertebral column of solid centra which are co- 

 ossified with the arches. Pectoral arch attached 

 to the cranium by a forked posttemporal ; no 

 mesocoracoid; pterygials more or less regularly 

 hourglass-shaped, 4 in number, 3 of them attached 

 to the scapula. Pelvic fins with a spine and 5 

 soft rays, or variously reduced, thoracic or sub- 

 thoracic in position, the pelvic bones attached to 

 the clavicles. 



These characters with a few minor excep- 

 tions are characters of the percoid fishes and 

 spiny-rayed fishes in general, including the 

 carangoids. These exceptions are: 



Maxillaries more or less attached to non-pro- 

 tractile premaxillaries, which are typically pro- 

 duced and pointed anteriorly. Cranium with the 

 orbito-rostral portion elongate and the postorbital 

 portion abbreviate. 



Oligoplites (family Carangidse) has non- 

 protractile premaxillaries, which are about as 

 much produced and nearly as pointed as in 

 the genus Sconiber. Regan himself (in a foot- 

 note) finds an exception to the pointed pre- 



maxillaries in Luvarus (a scombroid). The 

 character of the abbreviated postorbital por- 

 tion of the cranium has many exceptions. The 

 following are examples that are readily at 

 hand; many more and perhaps better ones 

 might be found. Of the family Scombridae 

 Auxis, Rastrelliger and Scomieromorus have 

 the postorbital portion of the cranium scarcely 

 abbreviate or the orbito-rostral portion elon- 

 gate. Furthermore, the following carangoid 

 and percoid fishes have these portions as much 

 abbreviate and elongate, if not more so : 

 Trachurops, Gnathanodon and Selene of the 

 family Carangidse, and Aphareus, Orthopristis 

 and Priacantlius of different percoid families. 



On the other hand, the more generalized 

 members of the family Carangidse have as 

 many anatomical characters of the scombroids 

 as of the percoids, and the well-known char- 

 acters which have always appeared in connec- 

 tion with them (here repeated) possess enough 

 weight to prove a closer affinity to the former 

 than to the latter group. Scales small and 

 cycloid; preopercle entire in the adult; caudal 

 peduncle very slei;Lder; the caudal fin widely 

 forked; a caudal keel and finlets sometimes 

 present and " the hypural embraced to a 

 greater extent by the bases of the caudal fin- 

 rays than in the Serranidse " (as Regan points 

 out). Their general appearance, which should 

 not be entirely ignored, is in favor of a closer 

 relationship to the scombroids. 



And so it appears that if the scombroids and 

 percoids are kept apart the family Carangidse 

 will have to remain a member of the former 

 group. The alternative is to consider them as 

 one group. 



The typical representatives of the scom- 

 broids and percoids are very different and they 

 have been considered apart because they ap- 

 parently form such natural groups ; the scom- 

 broids centering about the family Scombridaj, 

 and the percoids about the family Serranidse. 

 But the important characters that might sepa- 

 rate them all have exceptions, and the other 

 characters are insignificant. 



Jordan and Evermann in " Fishes of North 

 and Middle America '" arrange the scombroids 



'Bull. V. S. Xat. ilus., No. 47. 



