314 



BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



The late Sir Eichard Owen, in his celebrated work on "The Anatomy and 

 Physiology of Vertebrates," said : 



It may well be conceived, then, that more bones enter into the formation of the skull in 

 fishes than in any other animals; and the composition of this skull has been rightly deemed the most 

 difficult problem' in comparative anatomy. "It is truly remarkable," writes the gifted Oken, to whom 

 we owe the first clue to its solution, " what it costs to solve any one problem in philosophical 

 anatomy. Without knowing the what, the how, and the why, one may stand, not for hours or days, 

 but weeks, before a fish's skull, and our contemplation will be little more than a vacant stare at its 

 abmplex stalactitic form." 



kow, from this it will be easily appreciated that to write the " what," the " how," 

 and the " why" of the entire skeleton of Micropterm would simply make a volume of 

 several hundred pages, an achievement by no means contemplated when this brief 



S'ytnt 



Fig. 3 — Eight lateral view of skull of M. dolotnieu, witL other bonea; natural size, by the author. 

 Pma:, premaxillary; PZ., palatine; na., nasal; ^t/i., ethmoid ; Pr/, prefrontal ; j4fi., alisphenoid; 

 Pr., frontal; Ptf., poatfrontal; Sq,, squamosal; Pa., parietal; Ft o., pterotic; S. O., supra- 

 occipital; s. I., supralinear; lUp. o, epiotic; Ic, interneural spines; La., lacrymal; Pr.s., para- 

 sphenoid; S.or., suborbital; Pr.o., prootic; i?s. basisphenoid ; (?. Z7i/.. glossohyal; D.,dentary; 

 Ar(., articular; jlfa;., maxillary; a, admaxillary; i?w^(., entopterygoid; Eept., ectopterygoid ; 

 M. PL, metapterygoid; P&t. T., posttemporal ; Pr. S., proscapula-; Pf., pectoral fin; Hyo. C, 

 hypocoracoid ; O^., operculum; 5^. O^., suboperculum; jLjigr., angtitar; ^i/7n., symplectic; n.8., 

 neural spine; Psto. T., posterotemporal ; T., teleotemporal ; T'., lower teleotemporal ; Bs.P., 

 branchiostegal rays; P. Op., preoperculum ; I. 0^., interoperculiim; H. M., hyomandibular; 

 ()w., quadrate ; r.,rib; Aaf., actinosts ; JETj/p. O., hyporcoracoid. 



memoir was undertaken. Its aim, in fact, simply consists in bringing together what 

 I have already printed about the skeleton of this well-known and widely distributed 

 American fish, and arranging that subject-matter in condensed monographic form, 

 adding to it anything that may not have been touched upon in previous publications. 

 The paper will fulfill its mission if it excites au interest anywhere in the study of the 

 skeleton in fishes, and brings before the reader facts which will facilitate such studies, 

 and in a way prove to be of assistance in comprehending future memoirs upon the 

 osteology of fishes. 



The best method of studying the bones composing the slcull and appendages in any 

 adult specimen of an osseous fish, apart from comparing those bones with the corre- 

 sponding or analogous ones in the skull of any other animal, is to secure several perfect 

 heads of the fish to be thus considered, as near as possible of the same size, and pre- 



