Suborder SCOMBRES0C0IDEA 
Mouth typically large, jaws usually extended and narrowed 
forward. Rami of mandible usually united by interlocking of row of inner 
extensions. Maxillaries firmly joined with premaxillaries. Third upper 
pharyngeals moderately enlarged, separate, fourth usually present. Lower 
pharyngeal triangular or long and narrow. Pharyngeal teeth usually villi- 
form or granular, some of teeth of principal plates often compressed, tri¬ 
cuspid. Scales small. 
Analysis of Families 
A ^ f , 
a . No finlets.---—-—---Belonidae. 
2 
a . Dorsal and anal with detached finlets. —Scambresocidae. 
Family BELONIDAE 
Body greatly elongate, very slender, compressed or not. Both 
jaws extended into beak, lower longer, still longer in young. Maxillaries 
grown fast to premaxillaries* Each jaw with band of small sharp teeth, 
besides series of longer wide set sharp conical teeth. Vertebrae 55 to 
77, precaudal with strong projections to tshich ribs attached. Air bladder 
present. Ovary single. Scales very small, thin* Dorsal and anal far 
postmedian, rather long, opposite. No finlets. 
Carnivorous surface fishes, in many ways syggestive in super¬ 
ficial manner to the gar pikes. Found in all warm seas, some entering 
fresh water. In habits they somewhat resemble pikes, though when disturbed, 
or so inclined, are able to swin along the surface of the water with great 
rapidity, same even leaping and skipping out short distances. In the tropic 
when thus leaping the large species are sometimes dangerous to fishermen. 
They have even been known to pierce the naked abdomens of savages. 
