Stewart.] Cretaceous Fislies. 297 



The quadrate is thin and fan-shaped, and has the condyle 

 bent forward to a considerable extent. 



The skull that I regard as belonging to this species is much 

 crushed, so that many of the sutures on the top cannot be made 

 out. The otic region, however, is well shown. The ethmoid 

 seems to have been rather blunt. The frontals are narrow, and 

 each has a broad and prominent ridge which extends outward 

 and forward from just in front of the supraoccipital and ends 

 just above the prefrontals. They seem to have had supraorbital 

 bones attached along the border. The prefontal condyles are 

 large, and the postfrontals are prominent and offer a consider- 

 able support for the hyomandibular. The pterotics are crushed 

 beyond recognition above, but laterally the groove for the hyo- 

 mandibular is very prominent. I am unable to make out the 

 parietals in this specimen, but in another and much smaller 

 skull I find no suture separating it from the pterotic, as figured 

 by Crook, 58 and am inclined to think that the expanded por- 

 tion of the supraoccipital represents the coalesced parietals, as 

 has been suggested by Professor Hay. 51 ' The supraoccipital 

 crest extends upward and backward at quite an angle, but the 

 extremity is broken away. The epiotics are prominent and do 

 not extend far forward. The prootics and opisthotics are very 

 similar to those of Xiphactinus. The basioccipital is deeply 

 concave and expanded in front of the condyle. The parasphe- 

 noid is bifurcated posteriorly, triangular in section, with rather 

 small transverse processes in front of the brain-case. 



So far as can be determined the vertebra 4 are all two-grooved, 

 but near the posterior end of the column they become rather 

 faintly marked. The neural spines are long and longitudinally 

 expanded at their proximal ends. The caudal fin was much 

 expanded and composed of large rays, which become flattened 

 and longitudinally split toward the distal ends. The scales are 

 large, witli small grooves radiating outward from near the cen- 

 OD one of the sides. 



Paleontographica, p. 92, pi. XV. 

 W. 1. c, p. 230. 



20— vi 



