ORDER TELEOSTEI. 



995 



adipose fin, and the presence of peculiar dermal ossifications at the 

 ends of the ribs, which form bony plates on the sides of the thorax. 

 All the numerous forms are marine, and usually occur near the 

 coasts. The type genus Clupea (Herring) occurs in the Miocene of 

 Wiirtemberg, the Upper Eocene of the Isle of Wight, the Eocene 

 of Wyoming and Glarus, and the Chalk of the Lebanon. The 



Fig- 933 — The Common Herring {Clupea harengus). Reduced. 



common existing Herring is shown in fig. 933. The Lebanon 

 Chalk has also yielded a species of the living genus Engraulis ; 

 and the extinct genera Scombroclupea, Leptosomus, 1 Chirocentrites (also 

 in Westphalia), and Spaniodon, which are more or less closely allied 

 to existing types. In the Eocene of the Continent we have repre- 

 sentatives of the existing genera Engraulis (Anchovy) and Chanos, 

 and the extinct Platinx, Ccelogaster, and Crossognathus — the latter 

 being allied to the existing Megalops. 



In this place we may conveniently notice a number of extinct 

 genera more or less allied to the Clupeoids, but of which the family 



Fig. 934. — Skeleton of Rhinellus f?ircatus ; from the Cretaceous of the Lebanon. Reduced. 

 (After Pictet and Humbert.) 



position is in some instances uncertain, and some of which retain 

 indications of marked affinities to the higher Ganoids. One of the 

 most remarkable of these is Rhinellus (fig. 934), in which the skull 



1 Preoccupied by Leptosoma. 



