Longneck eel
| Longneck eels | |
|---|---|
| |
| Narrownecked oceanic eel,Derichthys serpentinus,from plate 49 ofOceanic Ichthyologyby G. Brown Goode and Tarleton H. Bean, published 1896 | |
Scientific classification
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Anguilliformes |
| Suborder: | Congroidei |
| Family: | Derichthyidae |
| Genera | |
|
Derichthys | |
Longneck eelsorneck eelsare a family,Derichthyidae,ofeels.They arepelagic fishes,found in the middle and depths of most oceans. The name comes fromGreekderesmeaning "neck" andichthysmeaning "fish".
They are distinguished by the presence of a series stripes on the head that form part of the sensory system, but otherwise the two genera of the family are quite different in appearance.Derichthyshas a narrow neck and large eyes, whileNessorhamphus'has a long, flattened, snout.[1]They grow to about 60 cm (24 in) in length.
Species
[edit]The three species in two genera are:[2]
- GenusDerichthys(one species)
- GenusNessorhamphus(two species)
In some classifications (for example,Systema Naturae2000), this family is split in two, with Derichthyidae containing only the genusDerichthys,andNessorhamphusbeing assigned its own family, Nessorhamphidae.
References
[edit]- ^McClosker, John F. (1998). Paxton, J.R.; Eschmeyer, W.N. (eds.).Encyclopedia of Fishes.San Diego: Academic Press. p. 89.ISBN0-12-547665-5.
- ^Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2011)."Derichthyidae"inFishBase.January 2011 version.
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Families by suborder |
|  | ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
 | ThisAnguilliformesarticle is astub.You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |