I ix - 
TERTIARY FRESH WATER FISHES FROM SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND. 161 
caudal has about 16 jointed rays, and, to judge from the greater size of these 
dorsally and ventrally, was excavated at its posterior margin, which is not 
clearly shown in any specimen. The rays are supported by an uncertain 
number of hypurals. The haemal spine attached to the seventh vertebra from 
the tip of the column is stronger than the others, and probably supported a 
robust ray or perhaps a spine in the caudal fin. There is no evidence that 
the enlarged first ray of the pectorals was serrated on its inner edge as Jordan 
(1905, p. 56) states to be the case in P. acutus. The pelvics have a small 
Text-figure 3. — Phareodus queenslandicus sp. nov. Partial reconstruction, based on Specimens 
[RP/B] 10, 7, 2, and [CP/B] 1. 
anterior spine. The scales are of the typical Osteoglossid type, being large, 
granulated on the exposed surface, and divided into a mosaic of compartments. 
The dermal cranial bones are sculptured, the operculum and post orbitals 
with grooves radiating from the growth centres and separated by rows of 
tubercles and fused tubercles. The cranial roof is ornamented w r ith lineally 
arranged pits and grooves. The dent ary is somewhat rugose. The cranial 
roofing bones (Fig. 4) are firmly sutured, but the sutures cannot all be made 
out, as in places the bones are cracked and it is difficult, from the impression, 
to distinguish between cracks and sutures. Comparison with the skull roof 
of P. acutus (see Plate XIX, Fig. A) and with Ride wood’s figures (1905) of 
Sclero'pages , Heterotis, and Arapaima , brings out the close resemblance to 
Phareodus , and what is known of Brychaetus (see Smith Woodward, 1901, Plate I) 
shows that there is a general resemblance to that genus also. In the 
fossil genera the broad lateral and anterior expansion of the nasals and frontals, 
and the development of the occiput are comparable and among the living 
forms, the closest resemblance is with Scleropages. In P. queenslandicus no 
suture is visible between the nasals and frontals, and that between the frontals 
and parietals is more anteriorly directed than in P. acutus or Brychaetus. 
