cranial osteology of the i'antodontid^. 273 



Paktodoktid^. 



Pantodon Buchholzi. 



The small fish known under this name is remarkable for the 

 disproportionately large size of the fins, the shortness of the 

 snout, the large size of the gape, the profusion of teeth, and the 

 reduction of the ojiercular skeleton. It was first described in 

 1876 by Peters (Monatsber. Akad. Wiss. Berl. 1876 (1877), 

 pp. 195-200, one plate), who obtained his specimens from Victoria 

 River, in the Cameroons ; other specimens have since been 

 obtained from the Congo and Niger. Although the general 

 aspect of the fish resembles that of a Cyprinodont, it is generally 

 admitted (Peters, I. c. pp. 198 and 200 ; Giinther, ' Study of 

 Pishes,' 1880, p. 653; Boulenger, ' Poissons du Bassin du 

 Congo,' 1901, J). 120) that its nearest allies are to found in the 

 Osteoglossidae. Several of the features of the skull of Fantodoii 

 have already been recorded in the three works above named. 



The skull examined is that belonging to a skeleton in the 

 British Museum, labelled " 80.11.24a2, Old Calabar." 



The top of the skull is broad and flat, and is divided into four 

 nearly equal parts by the sagittal and parieto-frontal sutures. 

 The parietal bones are large and meet one another in an 

 extensive median suture ; the frontal bones are broad, the length 

 of each being not greater than its breadth. The nasals are 

 comparatively large ; they are slightly convex above, and are 

 united by suture with the anterior edges of the frontal bones ; 

 they do not meet one another in the median line, but are 

 separated by the small mesethmoid. The right and left pre- 

 maxillse are fused into a single bone and the suture is obliterated ; 

 the bone bears a row of about fourteen small, pointed teeth, and 

 is immovably united with the anterior edges of the nasal bones 

 and mesethmoid. The premaxillalies in abroad depression in the 

 front edge of the roof of the cranium, with the teeth pointing 

 directly forward ; the anterior ends of the maxillary and dentary 

 bones extend in advance of the premaxilla. 



None of the bones are sculptured. The prefrontals do not 

 appear on the upper surface of the cranium ; the vomer is large, 

 and at its broad front end is a row of teeth, somewhat larger 

 than those of the premaxilla, disposed in the form of a widely- 

 opened V. Beneath that part of the parasphenoid which lies 



LINSr. JOUEN. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. XXTX. 19 



