HASEMAN, GEOGRAPHICAL D I ST RIB UTION IN 80 UTH AMERICA 75 



4. The alleged support derived from the distribution of the fishes is 

 derived from the static viewpoint- of animal geography. It is also based 

 on several erroneous ideas concerning the topography, geology and en- 

 vironmental complexes. 



5. The point of family origin was not correctly determined, because 

 the greater number of species in a given locality is no evidence that it is 

 a center of family origin or dispersal. 



In the preceding pages, I have attempted to explain the present dis- 

 tribution of fishes as being primarily due to cenotelic changes produced 

 by different environmental complexes on the ancestral stock. It was also 

 noted that only paleotelic characters were widely distributed. Therefore 

 we must look for the point of family origin at a very remote epoch, when 

 few or none of living Cichlida? and Characinidge existed. In other words, 

 the present distribution has little or nothing to do with the point of 

 family origin. This being the case, we have to look for fossils. 



We must confess that no absolutely conclusive knowledge derived from 

 either paleontology or any other source exists from which we can defi- 

 nitely determine the point of origin of the cichlid and characinid fishes ; 

 but the analogies which can be drawn from the following data taken in 

 connection with the facts which I have already stated appear to give the 

 most plausible explanation, because it is more in harmony with the known 

 geological data. 



The distribution of living and extinct Osteoglossidae is as follows : 



Number of „ 



species Remarks 



Phareodus (Leidy) 2 Eocene of Green River, Wyoming, United 



States of America, and upper Cretace- 

 ous of Chico formation of western 

 United States of America. 



Brychwtus 1 Lower Eocene of England. 



Arapaima 1 Amazon and Guiana. 



Osteoglossum 3 Amazon to north, East Indies and Aus- 

 tralia. 



Heterotis 1 Tropical Africa. 



Besides these five genera, two more doubtful genera are known from 

 the late Mesozoic of the United States of America and southeastern Eng- 

 land. The above data indicate a northern origin for this family of fishes, 

 which now lives only in the tropics and the southern hemisphere. . 



Diplomystus, a clupeoid, has recently been divided into two genera by 

 Jordan, and at least seven species are known. They are from the fol- 

 lowing regions: 



7 NY 



