NO. 1179. CHABACTEBS OF PEBCESOCES—STABKS. 



DIAGNOSIS OF THE SUPERFAMILY SPHYE^NOIDEA. 



.Cleft of mouth wide; teeth fangiike, some of them set in deep sock- 

 ets, large teeth on palatines; maxillary with supplemental bone; third 

 and fourth superior pharyngeals separate; supraclavicle not reduced 

 in size; lower limb of post-temporal not attached to opisthotic by 

 suture; exoccipitals not meeting above basioccipital ; alisphenoids 

 meeting; ethmoid a thin plate, entirely snpeiior, extending to and 

 forming edge of rostrum; anterior neural spines normal; parapophyses 

 not developed on anterior vertebra?. 



The characters of the family Sphyrsenidre are included in the fore- 

 going diagnosis. 



OSTEOLOGY OF ATHERINOPSIS CALIFOENIENSIS. 



Exoccipitals not meeting above basioccipital, thus leaving the latter 

 to form floor of foramen niaguum. 



Basioccipital and exoccipitals not much produced posteriorly. 



Supraoccipital crest not projecting above superior level of skull; its 

 posterior edge somewhat broken up and ragged. 



Parietals widely separated by su[)raoccipital. 



Epiotics produced backward, spreading out into thin, flat, horizontal 

 processes, which are much divided and ragged, though scarcely "bristle- 

 like," as in Mugil and Sphyrcena. 



Opisthotics witli a projection to which lower limb of post-temporal is 

 attached by ligament. 



Pterotics extending back as thin horizontal shelves of bone. 



JSphenotics well developed, their front edge continuous with edge of 

 frontals. 



Alisphenoids not meeting. 



Anterior opening into brain case large. 



Basisphenoid well developed, wholly in front of basis cranii and not 

 continuous with it. Supported directly by prootics and slightly by 

 alisphenoids. Its process strongly joined to parasphenoid, extending 

 posteriorly into myodome. 



Myodome large, opening to the exterior at its posterior end through 

 a small foramen at end of parasphenoid. 



Vomer convex on lower surface; its anterior edge produced at the 

 middle; trilobate in the young and pierced by a network of holes. 



Ethmoid wholly superior, being a simple, flat, thin bone supported 

 at its anterior edge by vomer and sending some slender filaments of 

 bone under frontals. The large space beneath it is filled by cartilage. 



Frontals extending well back over about half of superior portion of 

 supraoccipital. 



Metapterygoid united to hyomandibular by a deeply dentate suture. 



Pterygoid very much reduced in size — a mere splint of bone. 



Bones of opercular apparatus large. 



Opercular sending a spine forward in front of hyomandibular. 



