6 UPPER CRETACEOUS TELEOSTS 
Preparation of fossil material was mainly accomplished by dissolving the matrix in 
acetic acid (Toombs, 1948; Rixon, 1949). Specimens ‘in the round’ were immersed in 
2% to 5% acetic acid, for periods of several hours, after which they were washed in 
running water and then thoroughly dried. The subsequently exposed bone was 
hardened by the application of a solution of Vinalak 5917 in methyl ethyl ketone. 
The Vinalak was most effective when used in low concentrations. In two cases, 
where the material had previously been figured, a replica of the original was obtained 
by making silicone rubber moulds which were employed for the production of plaster 
of paris casts. 
Acid preparation was also used in conjunction with the embedding of flattened 
specimens in a cold-curing polyester resin, Crystic 195, the transfer method of 
Toombs and Rixon (1950). Excellent preparations of specimens from the Middle 
Cenomanian deposits of Hakel and Hajula in the Lebanon were obtained by this 
method. The matrix in this case is a much harder, more fissile limestone than is the 
English Chalk and greater concentrations of acetic acid, up to 20%, were used. 
The recent material used was either skeletal or alizarin preparations. In the case 
of the Myctophiformes the specimens from which bone and alizarin preparations 
were made were kindly loaned by Dr. G. Maul of Funchal in Madeira. 
Certain teleost bones have been given varying names throughout the literature. 
The nomenclature adopted in this work agrees with that of Patterson (1964), with the 
addition that the caudal skeleton terminology follows that of Nybelin (1963). In the 
systematic descriptions the vertebral counts always exclude the ural vertebrae and 
any preural vertebrae to which these may fuse, thus the count extends to the first 
free preural vertebra. Also in the systematic descriptions caudal vertebrae are 
those vertebrae which possess a complete haemal arch. Finally the classification 
adopted is that proposed by Greenwood, eé¢ al. (1966). 
IL "SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTIONS 
Superorder PROTACANTHOPTERYGII 
Order SALMONIFORMES 
Suborder ICHTHYOTRINGOIDEI 
Diacnosis. Head elongated anteriorly into a prominent rostrum ; body short. 
Maxilla enters gape, toothed or untoothed. Teeth on premaxillae, palatines, 
ectopterygoid, endopterygoid and dentary; vomer untoothed. 9g branchiostegal 
rays. Pectoral fins with up to 20 rays, low on flanks ; mesocoracoid arch present ; 
pectoral girdle with 2 postcleithra. Epineurals along most of the body. Anterior 
neural spines consist of separate lateral elements. Caudal skeleton with 2 free ural 
vertebrae ; Ig principal rays of which 17 are branched. Fins without spines. 
Scales cycloid. 
