Suborder EXOCOETOIDEA 
?-3 
Mouth small. Second and third upper pharyngeals with teeth, 
third pair strongly enlarged, togetl.er forming somevirhat convex ovoid 
plate. Fourth upper pharyngeals broad, triangular, with concave upper 
surface. Pharyngeal teeth on principal plates villiform in front, be¬ 
hind with incisors, their edges transversely expanded and horizontal. 
Intennediate forms of teeth, many tricuspid, connect above types. Scales 
rather large. 
Analysis of Families 
1 
a . Mouth cleft narrow, lower jaw usually extended; pectorals not elon¬ 
gated as organs of flight.-—__«„Hemiramphidae, 
V 
2 
a . Mouth cleft short, jaws not produced in long beak; pectorals more 
or less elongated as organs of flight-—Exocoetidae. 
Family HMIEAMPHIDAE 
Body very elongate, slender, cylindrical or compressed. Upper 
jaw short, lower various, usually much produced and toothed portion at 
base fits against toothed preraaxillaries. ifexillary firmly united with 
premaxillary. Teeth in jaws equal, small, compressed, tricuspid. Ho' 
teeth on palate or tongue. Gill rakers long. No pseudobrancfeine. Air- 
bladder large, simple, or sonetimes cellular. Vertebrae 49 to S5. Scales 
large, thin, deciduous and cycloid. Dorsal and anal moderate, latter 
usually like former or modified in viviparous forms, unmodified in ovi¬ 
parous forms. Caudal rounded, truncate or forked, when forked lower lobe 
longer. Pectoral inserted rather high, usually short, rarely elongate. 
Ventral moderate cr small. 
