ATHERINID^. 
359 
Genus ATHERUNTA, Linnaeus. 
[Sysfc. Nat. ed. 10, 1758, p. 315.] 
Trunk not keeled either above or below; bead laterally com¬ 
pressed, especially below, and snout obtusely pointed, not produced. 
Cranial roof flattened and partly depressed mesially, the small 
supraoccipital not raised into a crest; orbit enormous; cleft of 
mouth straight, oblique, extending to or beyond the anterior 
margin of the eye. Pectoral fins on the flank and the pelvic pair 
not more remote than the anterior dorsal fin ; posterior dorsal and 
anal fins nearly similar and opposed ; a series of free fin-supports 
between the two dorsal fins; caudal fin deeply forked. Scales 
large, very deeply overlapping, smooth, and not serrated, rarely 
crenulated on the posterior margin ; some extending over the 
opercular apparatus and cheeks. Lateral line indistinct. Air- 
bladder present. Pyloric appendages none. 
Atherina macrocephala, sp. nov. 
■ 1796. Silurus cata23hracti(s, G. S. Volta, Ittiolit. Veronese, p. cli. 
pi. XXXV. fis:. 5 (eiTore). 
1796. Silurus ascita, G. S. Volta, ibid. p. cxcviii. pi. xlviii. fig. 3 (errore). 
1818. Silurus cataphractus,'^ H. D. de Blainville, Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. 
Nat. vol. xxvii. p. 343. 
1835. Atherina macrocephala, L. Agassiz, Neues Jahrb. 1835, p. 305, 
and Poiss. Foss. vol. iv. p. 43 (name only). 
Type. Imperfect fish ; Paris Museum of Natural History. 
A very small species, scarcely attaining a length of 0*04. Length 
of head with opercular apparatus contained about four times, and 
maximum depth of trunk between five and six times in the total 
length of the fish. Width of orbit about equalling length of snout 
and one third the total length of the head with opercular apparatus. 
Vertebrsi about 40 in number. Pelvic fins arising much nearer to the 
pectorals than to the anal, and directly opposed to the dorsal, which 
comprises six or seven spinous rays and arises nearer to the occiput 
than to the second dorsal. The distance between the origin of the 
two dorsal fins about equal to that between the origin of the 
posterior dorsal and the caudal fin ; anal and posterior dorsal fins 
exactly opposite. 
Form. ^ Log. Upper Eocene : Monte Bolca, near Verona. 
P. 1970,-a. Two small slabs labelled by Agassiz. Egerton Coll. 
P. 1970 h, c. Two similar specimens, one being about 0*037 in 
, length, showing a long blackened patch in the abdominal 
