FISHES OF THE GBXUS ACENTKOPHORUS. 



31 



pelvic jB.n. Tlie best example of this kind, showing both supports 

 together, is represented in text-fig. 10; the bones are seen to be 

 of the same general pattern as in Lepidotus, but of a stouter 

 form. Nothing is seen of any.radials intervening between the 

 supports and the dermal rays, though the parts are so small and 

 difficult to see that no definite statement on the point can safely 

 be made. 



Previous investigators do not appear to have noticed any traces 

 of the axial skeleton of the trunk, except that Kirkby refers to 

 the supports of the median fins. The distal ends of these 

 supports fairly often appea.r, where scales are missing along 

 the bases of the fins. But much more than this can be made out 

 in certain specimens, particularly where, as occasionally happens, 



A B 



A. Pair of pelvic fiu-supports of Acentrophorus varians, Ij'iiig on the inner face of 



distiu-bed scales. 



B, Part of pelvic fin of Acentropliorus varians, showing basal fulcra. Both figures 



from specimens in the Kirkby Collection, Hancock Museum ; about four times 

 natural size. 



the splitting of the matrix has cleanly separated a right and a 

 left half, leaving the inner surface of the scales completely 

 exposed. (Such specimens sometimes show by a difierence of 

 colour the exact outline of the abdominal cavity, which is pre- 

 cisely as in a herring or similar fish.) If a specimen such as this 

 is examined with a suitable lens and in a strong, veiy oblique 

 light, any break in the regularity of the scale pattern being care- 

 fully scrutinised, it will almost always be found to show more or 

 less extensive traces of the axial skeleton. Kirkby's collection in 

 the Hancoclv Museum at Newcastle contains three specimens of 

 this nature in which the skeleton is particularly well shown, and 

 the information they give is set out in text-fig. 11, where the 

 unbroken lines represent the parts which are actually seen. The 



