History of the Sternoptixinae, a family of the osseous fishes, and their anatomical peculiarities : with a description of the Sternoptix celebes, a species not hitherto noticed / by P.D. Handyside.

Date:
[1839?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the Sternoptixinae, a family of the osseous fishes, and their anatomical peculiarities : with a description of the Sternoptix celebes, a species not hitherto noticed / by P.D. Handyside. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    The Mouth is set with maxillary and palatine teeth. The maxillary teeth are very numerous and minute^ and they are arranged en crochets, three rows in each jaw.* Each tooth presents the form of two incurvated cones applied base to base^, their concavities being directed towards the interior of the mouth.t The palatine teeth are much larger, and the existence of them appears to be distinctive of this species. They are five in number on each side of the mesian plane, and being arranged en cardes, they, on the approximation of the jaws, close after a dove- tailed manner.;}: The Branchial Arches§ are four in number, on the posterior half of the first three of which are placed several slender and curved dental ap- pendages, resembling the teeth of a garden rake. On the first or most anterior arch we count seven, on the next five, on the third three of these dental appendages. The superior half of each of these appendages is split down, or appears bristly along its distal half, and likewise at its extremity. Moreover, on the anterior half of these three arches are placed several tufts of short straight teeth, arranged en brasses. On the first arch are five, on the next four, and on the third three of these dental tufts. Superiorly, the first and second pairs of arches, after ascending in a curve, are attached by means of ligaments, situated beneath the cra- nium, to the sphenoid bone. The third and fourth pairs are attached to the upper borders of the cesophagus. Inferiorly, these arches are seen to join those of the opposite side, immediately below and in front of the large oval aperture of the cesophagus.lT Here they are retained in con- tact, partly by means of a strong fibro-cellular membrane or ligament of a triangular form,|| partly by the usual intermediate chain of three minute bones continued backwards from the lingual bone. The Branchial Rays are five in number, naked, attenuated, and curved.** The Dorsal Rays amount to (one moveable spine and) ten soft rays, each bifurcated at its extremity, the terminating points fimbriated. The Anal Fin in the Sternoptix Celebes is furnished with soft rays, thirteen in number, connected to each other by a transverse band near the root, and bifid at their extremities, between the most anterior ray of which fin, and the posterior margin of the verge of the anus, there exists in this species (as a termination to the anal interspmal bone) a strong anal spine, bifid at its extremity, and curved forwards in a direction paral- lel to the ventral spine.tt The large anal interspinal bone, joined to a great inferior spinous process, and extending down behind the anus, forms in this, as in a great number of other fishes, truly the posterior boundary of the abdomen.ifj * Plate I. fig. 5, and II. fig. 1. t Plato I. tig. i. ] Plato 1. %. 2, and II. fig. 3. § Plates I. fig. 2 ; II. figs. 2 ami 3. If Plate II. fig. 3. || Ibid.