256 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 424. 



The most characteristic system of bones 

 of the pisciform vertebrates is manifest 

 in the shoulder girdle, and the classes of 

 selachians and typical fishes, or teleos- 

 tomes, have been segregated under the 

 name Lyrifera, on account of the character 

 of this girdle. The main elements have 

 the form of the ancient lyre and are con- 

 nected by an inferior symphysis. In the 

 selachians the lyriform pieces are simple 

 cartilages with which the basal elements 

 of the pectoral fins articulate. In the 

 teleostomes dermal bones are added to the 

 cartilaginous pieces. The cartilaginous 

 pieces remain such in the dipnoans, cross- 

 opterygians and ganoids. In the ganoids 

 and especially the sturgeons, an arch is de- 

 veloped. In the teleosts ossification super- 

 venes and a disintegration of the structure 

 results in three independent bones on each 

 side. These bones have been variously 

 named, and by the old anatomists were 

 considered to be homologues of the arm 

 and forearm — humerus, radius and ulna. 

 The view of Gegenbauer, that the principal 

 ones represented the scapula and coracoid, 

 has been accepted by all recent ichthyotom- 

 ists except in America. The consideration 

 of the history of the nomenclature of oste- 

 ology and the development of the bones, 

 however, militate decidedly against the 

 acceptance of such a view. Scapula and 

 coracoid were given originally to the com- 

 posite bone and its process familiar from 

 manifestation in man and all eutherian 

 mammals. The bones of fishes to which 

 the names have been given are certainly 

 not homologous, and consequently the ap- 

 plication of the names is very misleading. 

 These bones, in fact, are only developed 

 as such in fishes specialized as teleosts and 

 very remote from the primitive stock of 

 the terrestrial vertebrates. A special 

 nomenclature is therefore necessary for 

 the bones of fishes. The so-called scapula 

 has been designated as hypercoracoid, the 



coracoid as kypocoracoid and the Spang- 

 enstiick or precoracoid as mesocoracoid. 

 The mesocoracoid disappears in most fishes, 

 all the acanthopterygians and offshoots 

 from that stock being deprived of that 

 ossicle. The modifications of the shoulder 

 girdle and its several constituents afford 

 excellent characters for taxonomy. 



The Systematic Relations of the Fish 

 Genus Lampris: Theo. Gill, Washing- 

 ton, D. C. 



Very recently the foremost ichthyologist 

 of Europe, Dr.. Boulenger, has reexamined 

 the osteology of Lampris, and especially 

 the shoulder girdle, and has attained novel 

 conceptions as to the afSnities of that 

 genus. The number of bones in the 

 shoulder girdle of Lampris is the same as 

 in ordinary acanthopterygian fishes, but 

 two of them have been interpreted from 

 a different standpoint than by his prede- 

 cessors: (1) The very large bone which 

 occupies the lower and posterior part of 

 the girdle was considered by him to be a 

 peculiar bone, named interclavicle, and 

 homologized with a homonymous bone of 

 the hemibranehs, and (2) the smaller one 

 immediately above it and behind the bones 

 supporting the pectoral fin was regarded 

 as a 'coracoid' or hypocoracoid. There- 

 fore Boulenger removed the genus from all 

 connection with the scombroideans, near 

 which it had always been assigned by pre- 

 vious ichthyologists, and found for it a 

 place near the hemibranehs. In short, he 

 considered Lampris as the representative 

 not only of a peculiar family (Lampri- 

 didse) but of an independent higher group 

 named Selenichthyes and coordinated with 

 the Hemibranchii and Lophobranchii ; the 

 three being associated together as repre- 

 sentatives of a suborder to which the new 

 name Catosteomi was given. 



The conclusions thus enunciated are so 

 startling and the authority so great that 



