Very many species of both _Scarus_ and _Pseudoscarus_, green, blue, red-brown, or variegated, abound about the coral reefs of Polynesia. About twenty-five species occur in Samoa. _Pseudoscarus latax_ and _P. ultramarinus_ being large and showy species, chiefly blue. _Pseudoscarus prasiognathus_ is deep red with the jaws bright blue. Fossil species referred to _Scarus_ but belonging rather to _Sparisoma_ are found in the later Tertiary. The genera _Phyllodus_, _Egertonia_, and _Paraphyllodus_ of the Eocene perhaps form a transition from _Labridæ_ to _Scaridæ_. In _Paraphyllodus medius_ the three median teeth of the lower pharyngeals are greatly widened, extending across the surface of the bone. CHAPTER XXIII THE SQUAMIPINNES [Illustration: FIG. 335.—_Monodactylus argenteus_ (Linnæus). From Apia, Samoa. Family _Scorpididæ_. ] =The Squamipinnes.=—Very closely allied to the _Percomorphi_ is the great group called _Squamipinnes_ (_squama_, scale; _pinna_, fin) by Cuvier and _Epelasmia_ by Cope. With a general agreement with the _Percomorphi_, it is distinguished by the more or less complete soldering of the post-temporal with the cranium. In the more specialized forms we find also a soldering of the elements of the upper jaw, and a progressive reduction in the size of the gill-opening. The ventral fin retains its thoracic insertion, and, as in the perch mackerel-like forms, it has one spine and five rays, never any more. The ventral fins are occasionally lost in the adult, as in the _Stromateidæ_, or they may lose part of their rays. The name _Squamipinnes_ refers to the scaly fins, the typical species having the soft rays of dorsal, anal, and caudal, and sometimes of other fins densely covered with small scales. In various aberrant forms these scales are absent. The name _Epelasmia_ (ἔπι, above; ἐλάσμος, plate) refers to the thin upper pharyngeals characteristic of certain forms. The transition from this group to the _Sclerodermi_ is very clear and very gradual. The _Squamipinnes_, _Sclerodermi_, _Ostracodermi_, and _Gymnodontes_ form a continuous degenerating series. On the other hand the less specialized _Squamipinnes_ approach very closely to forms already considered. The _Antigoniidæ_ are of uncertain affinities, possibly derived from such forms as _Histiopteridæ_, while _Platax_ show considerable resemblance to scaly-finned fishes like the _Kyphosidæ_ and _Stromateidæ_. The _Scorpididæ_ seem intermediate between _Stromateidæ_ and _Platacidæ_. In such offshoots from _Scombroidei_ or _Percoidei_ the group doubtless had its origin. We may begin the series with some forms which are of doubtful affinity and more or less intermediate between the _Squamipinnes_ and the more primitive _Percomorphi_.