CATALOG OF FOSSIL FISHES IN THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 363 
separate assemblages has recently been proposed by Mr. Regan,® whose reasons 
for this procedure are thus stated: 
“Tt is usually recognized that the berycoid fishes are very generalized, as is 
shown by the large number of rays in the pelvic fins, the persistence of the pneumatic 
duct in certain genera, and the abundance of the group in Cretaceous times. .. . 
In the Holocentride and Berycide the attachment [of the pelvic bones to the 
clavicles] is by ligament, and in the Polymixiide the pelvic bones are quite remote 
from the clavicles; in the last-named the outermost ray of the pelvic fin, although 
simple, is not spinous, but articulated. In many species of Myripristis the distal 
part of the maxillary enters the gape when the mouth is widely opened and bears a 
series of true teeth which are set in sockets. . . . These facts lead me to believe 
that the resemblance of the Cretaceous Clupeoids, Ctenothrissa and Pseudoberyz, 
to the berycoids may be due to their real affinity, and that they may have belonged 
to the group from which the berycoid fishes have evolved.” 
Division A. BERYCIFORMES. 
(Order Berycomorphi Regan.) 
In this division the pelvic fins are thoracic, usually with more than five 
articulated rays in addition to the spine. No bony stay between the cireum- 
orbital ring and preoperculum. 
Family Berycipa. 
This family, in the language of Boulenger, “is remarkable for the retention 
of two archaic characters: the large number of rays in the ventral fins, and the duct 
between the air-bladder and the digestive tract; the latter character is, however, 
not universal, and has only been found in two genera (Beryx and Holocentrum). 
The sealing of the body varies greatly, and so does the development of the spines 
in the vertical fins.” 
The Berycide were abundantly represented in Cretaceous times by Beryx 
and other genera more or less closely related to living forms, and they appear to 
have been the precursors of the Perciform fishes. About seventy species, referred to 
thirteen genera, are known to live at the present day, mostly at great depths, in the 
seas nearly all over the world. 
Genus Myripristis Cuvier. 
A figure of the skull of this genus, and one of the skeleton of Holocentrum, are 
given by Agassiz in Vol. IV, plate B, of his Poissons Fossiles. 
5 Advance Print from Proc. Seventh International Zool. Congress, Boston Meeting, 1910, p. 12. 
