New Hawaiian Fishes — Gosline 
75 
Fig. 6. Schindleria. a. Left premaxillary and maxillary 
from the inside, the posterior end of the maxillary 
somewhat raised, b, Median end of left maxillary from 
above, c, Head and fore part of body to show certain 
“ossifications.” d, Caudal skeleton and posterior por- 
tion of “vertebral column.” e, Mandible, suspensorium, 
opercle, and hyoid apparatus, ba, “Basioccipital”; br, 
branchiostegal ray; ce, ceratohyal; cl, cleithrum; eh, 
epihyal; ep, epiotic; gl, “glossohyal”; hy, hyomandi- 
bula; ma, mandible; op, opercle; or, orbit; pe, pectoral 
lobe; po, “posttemporal”; pt, pterotic; qu, quadrate; 
and sp, sphenotic. 
provisionally identified as epiotic, sphenotic, 
and pterotic. Running in under the skull is a 
projection of the vertebral column which may 
represent the basioccipital (Fig. 6c) ; a possible 
alternate interpretation of this ”bone” is 
suggested below. 
The pectoral girdle consists of two simple 
struts (Fig. 6c) representing the cleithrum 
and probably the posttemporal. There is 
nothing in the fleshy lobe between the 
cleithrum and the pectoral rays that absorbs 
alizarin stain. 
The vertebral centra stain clearly but the 
neural and haemal arches seem to be repre- 
sented only by short spines that ride on the 
centra. The number of differentiated vertebrae 
vary from 33 to 39 in the genus (Schindler, 
1932 : 6, 8) . At the rear of the vertebral column 
is a rodlike structure with an upturned tip 
that runs for the length of about 3 normal 
vertebrae. To its posterolateral face is at- 
tached a plate (Fig. 6d). Both of these fea- 
tures take stain well. 
Since it is this terminal portion of the axial 
skeleton that forms the feature of Schindleria 
unique among all known fishes, some discus- 
sion of it seems in order. The terminal plate 
would appear to take the place of the hypural 
fan, differing from the usual caudal skeleton 
in the complete lack of separate ossifications. 
The rodlike portion of the "vertebral column" 
ahead of it is difficult to interpret satisfactorily. 
When the vertebral column first ossifies in an 
anchovy, the caudal portion of the column 
forms early as a number of small elements 
which eventually fuse to a considerable extent 
to form the adult caudal skeleton. One pre- 
sumes that the tail rod of Schindleria evolved 
in a different ontogenetic fashion. The most 
satisfactory explanation for it that the author 
can find is that it represents the posterior por- 
tion of the notochord which has been re- 
placed by cartilage and/or bone without 
dividing into discrete vertebral segments. 
In this connection it is necessary to revert 
to the skull bone that was provisionally called 
the basioccipital in earlier paragraphs. The 
alternative explanation is that it is the forward 
end of this same notochord which has taken 
up stain in the same way suggested for the 
posterior rod. 
In the caudal fin there are 13 rays, 11 of 
which are branched. The interneurals and 
interhaemals of the dorsal and anal fins re- 
spectively bear a one-to-one relationship with 
the vertebrae (see Bruun, 1940, fig. 2). There 
are from 15 to 20 unbranched dorsal rays, and 
from 11 to 17 unbranched rays in the anal; the 
pectoral contains 15 to 17 rays (Schindler, 
1932: 7, 8). 
Relationships: As mentioned, Schindleria was 
first described as a neotenic Hemiramphus. 
