. American food and game fishes : a popular account of all the species found in America north of the Equator, with keys for ready identification, life histories and methods of capture . Fishes; Fishes; Fishes. THE PADDLEFISHES Family I. PolyodontidcB Body fusiform, scarcely compressed; skin smooth, scaleless; snout lengthened and expanded into a long, thin, flat blade or spatula, the inner part formed by the produced nasal bones, the outer portion with a reticulate bony framework, the whole some- what flexible; mouth broad and terminal, but overhung by the broad spatulate snout; border of mout
. American food and game fishes : a popular account of all the species found in America north of the Equator, with keys for ready identification, life histories and methods of capture . Fishes; Fishes; Fishes. THE PADDLEFISHES Family I. PolyodontidcB Body fusiform, scarcely compressed; skin smooth, scaleless; snout lengthened and expanded into a long, thin, flat blade or spatula, the inner part formed by the produced nasal bones, the outer portion with a reticulate bony framework, the whole some- what flexible; mouth broad and terminal, but overhung by the broad spatulate snout; border of mouth formed by the premaxillaries, the maxillaries being obsolete; jaws and palatines with numerous fine, decidous teeth in the young, scarcely evident in the adult; no tongue; spiracles present; opercle rudimentary, its skin produced behind in a long, pointed flap; no pseudobranchise; gills 4>^; gillrakers long, in a double series on each arch, the series divided by a broad membrane; gill-membranes connected, but free from the isthmus; a single broad branchiostegal ray; no barbels; nostrils at the base of the blade and double; a well-developed and contin- uous lateral line, its lower margin with short branches; dorsal fin placed posteriorly, of soft rays only; anal fin similar, somewhat more posterior; tail heterocercal, the lower lobe, however, well- developed, the tail being thus nearly equally forked; sides of the upper caudal lobe armed with small, rhombic plates; pectoral fins moderate, placed low; ventrals many-rayed, abdominal; air-bladder cellular, not bifid; pyloric cceca a short, broad, branching, leaf-like organ; intestine with a spiral valve; skeleton chiefly cartilaginous. This family contains but two known species—Psephurus gladius, a singular inhabitant of the fresh waters of China, and the paddlefish found in the United Paddle-fish; Spoon-bill Cat Polyodon spathida (Walbaum) The Paddle-fish is one of the most singular and interesting fishes occurring
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectfishes, bookyear1902
