OSTEOLOGY:

Summary: Cranium without the expanded V-shaped crests seen in Melanogrammus (borne on the frontals); occipital keel not greatly developed; suborbital bones moderately large; maxillary reaching past front of eye to about middle of orbit. Spine on top of first vertebra tightly connected to a narrow crest at the rear of the skull; transverse processes of vertebrae not swollen at tip; single hypural bone attached to last vertebra. No part of the skeleton expanded and ivory-like.
Literature: Jordan and Evermann 1898: Reference to family Gadidae: Page 2530 (text) - "...suborbital bones moderate..." Reference to genus Gadus: Page 2532 (key) - "Hypocoracoid not swollen and ivory-like... supraoccipital crest moderate." "Transverse processes of vertebrae not swollen at tip." Page 2540 (text) - "...the maxillary reaching past front of eye..." "...cranium without the expanded crests seen in Melanogrammus; no part of the skeleton expanded and ivory-like." Reference to Gadus macrocephalus: - Page 2541 (text) - "...the maxillary reaching to below front of pupil..." Cohen et al. 1990: Reference to family Gadidae: Page 18 (text) - "No V-shaped ridge on top of skull." " A single hypural bone attached to last vertebra. Spine on top of first vertebra is tightly connected to a narrow crest at the rear of the skull."