Fragments named Chelonopsis, and doubtfully referred to Mola, are found in the Pliocene of Belgium. Certain jaws of cretaceous age, attributed to Mola, probably belong, according to Woodward, to a turtle.
Fig. 364.—The King of the Mackerel, Ranzania makua Jenkins, from Honolulu. (After Jenkins.)
In the genus Ranzania, the body is more elongate, twice as long as deep, but as in Mola, the body appears as if bitten off and then provided with a fringe of tail. The species are rarely taken. Ranzania truncata is found in the Mediterranean and once at Madeira. Ranzania makua, known as the king of the mackerels about Hawaii, is beautifully colored brown and silvery. This species has been taken once in Japan.
In Hawaii it is believed that all the Scombroid fishes are subject to the rule of the makua and that they will disappear if this fish be killed. By a similar superstition, Regalecus glesne is "king of the herrings" in Norway and about Cape Flattery, Trachypterus rex salmonorum is "king of the salmon."
CHAPTER XXV
PAREIOPLITÆ, OR MAILED-CHEEK FISHES
The Mailed-cheek Fishes.—The vast group of Pareioplitæ (Loricati) or mailed-cheek fishes is characterized by the presence of a "bony stay" or backward-directed process from the third suborbital. This extends backward across the cheek toward the preopercle. In the most generalized forms this bony stay is small and hidden under the skin. In more specialized forms it grows larger, articulates with the preopercle, and becomes rough or spinous at its surface. Finally, it joins the other bones to form a coat of mail which covers the whole head. In degenerate forms it is again reduced in size, finally becoming insignificant.
The more primitive Pareioplitæ (παρεία, cheek; ὁπλιτής, armed) closely resemble the Percomorphi, having the same fins, the same type of shoulder-girdle, and the same insertion of the ventral fins. In the more specialized forms the ventral fins remain thoracic, but almost all other parts of the anatomy are greatly distorted. In all cases, so far as known to the writer, the hypercoracoid is perforate as in the Percomorphi. There are numerous points of resemblance between the Cirrhitidæ and the Scorpænidæ, and it is probable that the Scorpænidæ with all the other Pareioplitæ sprang from some perciform stock allied to Cirrhitidæ and Latrididæ.
Fossil mailed-cheek fishes are extremely few and throw little light on the origin of the group. Those belong chiefly to the Cottidæ. Lepidocottus, recorded from the Miocene and Oligocene, seems to be the earliest genus.