atheriniform

atheriniform

fish
Introduction

      any member of the order Atheriniformes, containing 15 families of marine and freshwater spiny-finned fishes (spiny-finned fish), including the flying fishes (flying fish) (see ), needlefishes (needlefish), silversides, and cyprinodonts. The last group, the Cyprinodontidae (killifish), is an abundant tropical and subtropical family that includes the guppies (guppy), mollies (molly), swordtails (swordtail), and many other aquarium fishes. In addition to the Atheriniformes, this article treats the three smaller related orders Beryciformes, Zeiformes, and Lampridiformes, the most primitive groups of the superorder Acanthopterygii, or spiny-finned fishes.

General features
      Beryciforms and zeiforms are mostly deep-bodied fishes of small to moderate size, a foot or less in length. The lampridiforms include a few rare, deep-bodied forms, notably the disk-shaped opah, which may reach more than 136 kilograms (300 pounds) in weight, but the majority are much elongated, ribbonlike fishes, including the giant oarfish, Regalecus, which reaches eight metres (25 feet) in length and is the probable source of many sea-serpent legends. The atheriniform silversides, flying fishes, needlefishes, and halfbeaks tend to be slender, elongate fishes, up to 0.3 to 0.9 metre (two to three feet) in length. The cyprinodonts and their relatives are diminutive and include some of the smallest vertebrates. Many cyprinodonts are important as experimental animals in biological research and as useful predators in the control of insect-borne diseases.

Natural history
      Most beryciforms, zeiforms, and lampridiforms are inhabitants of the open oceans, usually living at considerable depth, and little is known of their natural history. All appear to produce numerous small eggs. The best known of the beryciform groups are the squirrelfishes (squirrelfish) and soldierfishes (family Holocentridae), abundant around coral reefs in warm seas. Typical of beryciforms, they are red in colour, with large eyes. Holocentrids are nocturnal, sheltering in crevices during the day and emerging at night to feed. They are notable sound producers, having special drumming muscles attached to the swim bladder, and many have connections between the swim bladder and the ear to improve hearing: presumably these sounds and their reception play some part in courtship. In holocentrids the young (larva) is quite unlike the adult, with a projecting spiny snout and enlarged spines in front of the gill cover. There is a pronounced metamorphosis (a major change in body plan on reaching maturity). It is probable that some of the deep-sea beryciforms undergo similar metamorphoses; the larva of the fanged Caulolepis was for many years placed in a different family from the adult, and the genus Kasidoron, recently discovered and placed in a distinct family, may be only the larva of Gibberichthys. Another family of beryciforms found near the surface is the Anomalopidae, or “strange-eyes,” so-called because of a large luminous organ lying directly below the eye, which is switched on by muscular eversion, turning the inside outward (in Anomalops) or by the withdrawal of a pigmented cover (in Photoblepharon). The Monocentridae, the bizarre pinecone fishes, are another beryciform group with luminous organs, in this case located on the chin. The majority of beryciforms are generalized predators, but a few coral-reef forms are grazers.

      Among zeiforms, at least one species, Zeus faber, produces sounds by drumming muscles and breeds inshore. Little is known of the biology of the oceanic forms, but some certainly undergo metamorphosis, especially the Oreosomatidae, whose larvae are studded with large, spinous tubercles. All zeiforms are highly compressed fishes, with stiff bodies and long dorsal and anal fins: probably they swim by undulating these fins rather than by flexing the body. This slow, stealthy mode of swimming, coupled with their highly protrusile mouths, adapts them for stalking and engulfing prey.

      The lampridiforms are all oceanic fishes. Metamorphosis is recorded in dealfishes and oarfishes, the young of which have rather deep bodies and greatly elongated fin rays. All are slow swimmers, and the larger forms, the opah and the oarfishes, which are characteristic of surface waters, use their protrusile, toothless mouths as traps for small, planktonic (free-floating) organisms. The deep-sea forms have feebly toothed jaws and are predators. A remarkable modification in one lampridiform, Lophotes, is the presence of an ink sac, discharging a viscous, black secretion into the hindgut, thence into the water. These fishes probably use their ink as a defense mechanism, as do squids. Stylephorus, a highly modified deep-sea lampridiform, has projecting, telescopic eyes.

      Among atheriniforms there is an extraordinary variety of locomotor, reproductive, and ecological adaptations. Locomotor modifications are most marked in the flying fishes, but the origin of the “flying” habit can be traced in flying fish relatives such as the halfbeaks (halfbeak), garfishes, and skippers. All are surface fishes of the open ocean and are capable of leaping or skipping on the surface, sometimes for considerable distances, thus allowing them to escape predators. The tail (caudal) fin is usually asymmetrical, with the lower lobe longer than the upper, and while the body is out of the water the lower lobe vibrates as a scull driving the fish along. True flying fishes have a similar asymmetrical tail, but the pectoral fins are inserted high on the shoulders and are greatly enlarged, with long, stiff fin rays supporting a web of skin. In the most highly evolved flying fishes, the pelvic fins are also enlarged and winglike. The fish accelerates under water by rapid vibration of the tail and fin, with the paired fins furled. On breaking surface, the pectoral fins are expanded, but the lower lobe of the tail remains in the water, sculling rapidly and accelerating the fish. The pelvic fins are then expanded, lifting the tail out of the water and initiating gliding flight. As airspeed is lost, the fish may fall back into the sea or furl its pelvic fins, dropping the lower lobe of the tail into the water and picking up speed for a further glide. Up to five repeated takeoffs have been observed, producing a total flight time of almost half a minute and covering several hundred yards.

      Marine atheriniforms are mostly predators, the predatory habit being most highly developed in the garfishes and needlefishes, with their long, formidably toothed jaws. Freshwater atheriniforms are generally adapted for feeding at the surface, on insect larvae and small crustaceans.

      All atheriniforms are characterized by the production of few, large, adhesive eggs, by mating in pairs, usually accompanied by sexual dimorphism (i.e., the sexes markedly different), and many groups exhibit various reproductive specializations, the most advanced of which is viviparity (the production of functional young, instead of eggs). The young are normally miniatures of the adult and there is no metamorphosis. Sauries, needlefishes, flying fishes, and marine halfbeaks are pelagic (i.e., inhabiting open ocean) and breed either in the open sea (sauries, flying fishes) or near the shore (needlefishes, halfbeaks), the eggs often attaching to floating objects by adhesive filaments. The freshwater halfbeaks are mostly viviparous and have an elaborate courtship behaviour.

      Atheriniforms of the suborder Atherinoidei fall into two groups, the silversides (Atherinidae and their close relatives) and the more specialized phallostethoids. The silversides are mainly freshwater fishes and show some reproductive specializations in courtship behaviour and sexual dimorphism (coloration and fin shape). They breed near the shore, attaching the eggs to plants. The grunion (Leuresthes tenuis) breeds on the California coast, schooling in the surf at extreme spring high water and spawning on the shore, where the female buries the eggs in the sand. The eggs hatch when they are exposed by the next spring tide, two weeks later. In phallostethoids, males have a fleshy, asymmetrical intromittent organ, the priapium, under the throat, formed from the modified pelvic fins. Although fertilization is internal, viviparity is not known to occur.

      Even the most primitive atheriniforms in the suborder Cyprinodontoidei show the usual reproductive specializations of the group: sexual dimorphism and complex behaviour patterns in courtship and spawning. In the Mexican topminnows (Goodeidae) viviparity has developed, the embryos absorbing nourishment within the oviduct of the mother by means of threadlike outgrowths. In the live-bearers (live-bearer) (Poeciliidae), an abundant group in the American tropics and subtropics, sexual dimorphism affects many parts of the body. Males have a complex intromittent organ, the gonopodium, formed of modified anal fin rays. One member of the group is oviparous, shedding the eggs while the embryo is only partially developed, but in the guppies, mollies, and swordtails, where the male is much smaller than the female and more brightly coloured, the young are born fully developed, and a series of broods, at about monthly intervals, may result from a single fertilization. In wild cyprinodont populations the sex ratio is frequently unusual, with many females to each male. In Jenynsia and Anableps (the four-eyed fish) the gonopodium and female reproductive opening are asymmetrical. Both dextral and sinistral forms occur within a species, dextral males mating with sinistral females and vice versa.

      Ecological adaptations in atheriniforms are most marked in freshwater species. Cyprinodonts are among the hardiest of fishes and survive in the most rigorous environments. Some cyprinodonts have become adapted to life in hot springs in Africa and America and seem capable of surviving water temperatures approaching the coagulation point of protoplasm. Others survive in stagnant, almost or completely deoxygenated waters, either by taking in water at the surface film, or by breaking surface and gulping air, although no accessory respiratory structures are developed. Some cyprinodonts have overcome the rigours of a seasonal tropical habitat by becoming annuals, growing rapidly and reaching sexual maturity in small temporary bodies of water during the wet season, and on the approach of the dry season, mating and burying the eggs in the mud. The eggs can survive droughts for up to five years, hatching rapidly with the onset of the succeeding wet season. Perhaps another response to rigorous environments is the occurrence in some cyprinodont populations of functional hermaphrodites, capable of self-fertilization and hence of maintaining a population from one surviving parent.

Form and function
      The fishes discussed here share a number of anatomical features typical of the more advanced teleosts. These include a closed swim bladder; separation of the parietal bones by the supraoccipital; jaws that protrude to some extent, with the maxillary bone (toothless except in a few beryciforms) acting as a lever to move the large premaxilla; the pectoral fins inserted high on the flank and the pectoral girdle without a mesocoracoid arch; and a tail skeleton supported by two or less vertebrae. Otherwise, there is considerable structural variation.

      Beryciforms are the most primitive fishes of the four groups under discussion, exhibiting primitive features: the presence of two supramaxillary bones in the upper jaw; an orbitosphenoid bone between the eyes; a tail fin containing 19 principal rays, which insert on six hypural bones supported, in turn, by two vertebrae. Occasionally, they have teeth on the maxillary bone (in the modern holocentrid Myripristis and a few Cretaceous fossils). There are many ways in which beryciforms approach the perciforms, the typical “spiny-rayed” fishes. Such resemblances are seen in a number of features: the structure of the mouth, with a normal acanthopterygian pattern of jaw muscles and ligaments; the spiny head bones and ctenoid scales (with a serrated edge); a projection called a subocular shelf on the bones below the eye; stout spines in front of the dorsal, anal, and pelvic fins; bony contact between the pelvic and pectoral girdles; and the short, deep trunk, with about 25 vertebrae. The more generalized beryciforms (holocentrids, trachichthyids, and berycids) exhibit all of these features, but in several lineages degeneration has occurred, associated with life in the deep. In such deep-sea beryciforms as the big-scale fishes (Melamphaeidae), fin spines tend to be absent, the pelvic fins have moved back to the abdomen, and the head bones and scales have become thin and flimsy. Also, in some species primitive structures such as the orbitosphenoid and supramaxillary bones are lacking, and fusions within the tail skeleton have resulted in a condition resembling that of perciforms. The swim bladder is reduced or lost in some.

      Anatomically, the zeiforms resemble perciforms more closely. Almost the only feature that distinguishes zeiforms from perciforms is the presence, in the former, of two or three more rays in the pelvic fins, and in some zeiforms even this distinction fails to hold. Nevertheless, these extra pelvic rays and a few other features, notably the structure of the otoliths (“ear stones,” used in maintaining balance), indicate that the zeiforms are beryciform relatives that have independently attained the perciform evolutionary level. Typically, the zeiform has a highly protrusible mouth, a separate spinous dorsal fin, ctenoid scales, and a short, deep trunk; the most primitive members of the order have 24 or less vertebrae.

      The most primitive lampridiforms are also deep-bodied fishes, with spines in front of the dorsal and anal fins, the pelvic fins directly below the pectorals, an orbitosphenoid bone in the skull, and a tail fin with 19 principal rays, in which they resemble beryciforms. Lampridiforms differ from beryciforms, however, in never having a subocular shelf or pelvic spine, in having more numerous vertebrae, and in having the upper tail fin supports fused with an independent vertebral centrum, a condition resembling that found in the cods and their relatives (Paracanthopterygii). Most lampridiforms have highly protrusile jaws (jaw) in which depression of the lower jaw dislocates the maxilla of the upper, so that it moves forward bodily, carrying the premaxilla with it. This is a different method from that adopted by other acanthopterygians, hence the name allotriognaths (“strange-jaws”) originally applied to the group. A parallel can be drawn between the beryciforms and lampridiforms in certain modifications exhibited by the deep-sea forms, compared with their surface-living relatives. These include the loss of fin spines, reduction in ossification, and reduction of the swim bladder. The most striking features of the more highly evolved lampridiforms, however, are peculiar to the group: great elongation of the trunk, accomplished by increase in vertebral number and elongation of the vertebrae themselves, and reduction of the tail to a small, asymmetrical or filamentous appendage.

      The atheriniforms are an extremely varied group. There are many structural resemblances to more advanced acanthopterygians, but these are in mosaic distribution, indicating that most have been independently acquired. The jaws of many atheriniforms are protrusile, but the structural modifications by which this is achieved are quite different from those of typical acanthopterygians. The simple, shelflike head of the maxillary bone is attached to the palate only by ligaments, not by a mobile joint. The premaxilla is longer than the maxilla and also has a simple head. Protrusion of the jaws is accomplished by twisting the maxilla and displacing its head forward; the complex system of joints and ligaments characteristic of other acanthopterygians is not developed. The palate is usually toothless, and the series of infraorbital bones incomplete, only the first (lachrymal) and last (dermosphenotic) bones being present. The skull bones are not spiny, but the scales are often ctenoid. The pelvic girdle may have a ligamentous connection with the shoulder girdle but often lies further back, and the girdles never acquire the direct contact that characterizes higher acanthopterygians. The pelvic fin has six or fewer rays, but there is no pelvic spine. The atheriniform tail skeleton is of an advanced type, usually with two large plates emanating from a single supporting centrum, as in some advanced perciforms. The caudal fin contains 17 or less principal rays. There are a few spines in front of the dorsal and anal fins in many atheriniforms, and the members of the Atherinidae and Phallostethidae have a small, separate spinous dorsal fin, but atheriniform spines appear to have evolved independently from those of true acanthopterygians.

      An extreme example of adaptation to life near the air–water interface, the habitat of most atheriniforms, is the eye of Anableps, the four-eyed fish, so named because each eye is a double structure. The eye is set high on the head and the upper part projects above the water. The cornea is divided by a horizontal band of pigment, separating an upper, strongly convex part from a lower, flatter division. The iris has a pair of projections partially dividing the pupil into two, and the upper is effective for aerial vision, the lower for underwater vision.

      Much work has been done on the genetics of atheriniforms, perhaps the most surprising result being the hatching of hybrids between Fundulus (Cyprinodontidae) and Menidia (Atherinidae), fishes placed in separate suborders. A physiological peculiarity of some marine atheriniforms, garfishes and needlefishes, is a bright green coloration of the bones and even the flesh, due to retention of a bile pigment, biliverdin.

Evolution, paleontology, and classification

Paleontology
      The four orders Beryciformes, Zeiformes, Lampridiformes, and Atheriniformes are primitive groups within the superorder Acanthopterygii. The Beryciformes and Zeiformes apparently form a related group, originating in the Cretaceous, its closest relatives being the Perciformes. The Lampridiformes also originated in the Cretaceous and are of uncertain relationships, being to some extent intermediate between the Acanthopterygii and Paracanthopterygii. The Atheriniformes represent a radiation from near the base of the acanthopterygian stock, but their exact relationships within this group are not known. The present distribution of atheriniforms indicates that the group arose in fresh or brackish waters of the tropical Indo-Pacific region, but little is known of their early fossil history.

Annotated classification
Order Beryciformes
 Spiny-rayed fishes with a pelvic spine, an orbitosphenoid, and 19 principal rays in the tail. Of the two main lineages the first contains the Holocentridae, coastal fishes of warm seas. The second is a series of oceanic families centring around the Trachichthyidae. Both groups have fossil records back to the Cretaceous, the 2 lines converging in the Middle Cretaceous.
      Family Holocentridae (soldierfishes and squirrelfishes)
 Circumtropical, with partly separate spinous dorsal fin. Several extinct genera, Middle Cretaceous onward.

      Family Monocentridae (pinecone fishes)
 Armoured, very spiny. Teeth on endopterygoid bone. Two genera; Indo-Pacific.

      Family Trachichthyidae
 Midwater (mesopelagic) or deepwater pelagic fishes, worldwide. Skull bones cavernous, with large mucus cavities. Several extinct genera, Middle Cretaceous onward.

      Family Berycidae (alfonsinos)
 Upper and midwaters in open ocean; worldwide. Pelvic girdle enlarged and tightly joined with the pectoral.

      Family Anoplogasteridae
 Deep-sea, adults with large fangs; 1 genus.

      Family Diretmidae
 Very deep bodied, compressed fishes; 1 genus.

      Family Anomalopidae (lantern-eyed fishes)
 With subocular luminous organ, found near the surface at night; 2 Indo-Pacific genera, 1 Atlantic.

      Family Stephanoberycidae (prickle fishes)
 Scales and head spiny, fin spines reduced; bathypelagic, worldwide; 3 genera.

      Family Melamphaeidae (big-scale fishes)
 Abundant deepwater open ocean fishes, worldwide; softbodied and black. Fossils in the Miocene.

      Family Gibberichthyidae
 Like Melamphaeidae but with stronger fin spines. Atlantic, 1 or 2 genera.

      Family Rondeletiidae (whale fishes)
 Head large, no scales, fin spines, or swim bladder; bathypelagic, 1 genus.

      Family Cetomimidae (whale fishes)
 Mouth huge, spineless fins, bathypelagic, worldwide.

      Family Barbourisiidae (whale fishes)
 No fin spines, scales reduced to minute spines, red, bathypelagic, 1 genus.

Order Zeiformes
 Like Perciformes but with up to 9 pelvic rays and only 12–13 principal caudal rays.
      Family Caproidae (boar fishes)
 Most primitive family, 21–23 vertebrae, fossils in the Oligocene; 2 genera, worldwide.

      Family Zeidae (John Dories)
 Deep bodied and laterally flattened. Mouth large; scales reduced; more than 30 vertebrae. Several genera, worldwide; fossils in the Eocene.

      Family Grammicolepididae
 Mouth very small, scales drawn out into oblique bands. Two genera, mesopelagic.

      Family Oreosomatidae
 Larva covered with large tubercles. Four genera, benthic (bottom dwelling); worldwide.

      Families Zeniontidae and Macrurocyttidae
 Two small families, the first with two genera, the second with one, too poorly known to be characterized.

Order Lampridiformes
 Similar to Beryciformes, but with no pelvic spine; upper hypural bones fused with their supporting centrum.
      Suborder Lampridoidei
 Deep-bodied forms.

      Family Veliferidae
 One living genus (Velifer) with saillike fins, 33 vertebrae. Fossils from Paleocene and Eocene, several extinct genera.

      †Families Aipichthyidae and Pharmacichthyidae
 Extinct families, each containing a single Upper Cretaceous genus; appear to be primitive lampridiforms, resembling Velifer in deep trunk, but with fewer vertebrae and more primitive tail skeletons.

      Family Lamprididae (opahs)
 One genus (Lampris); 15–17 pelvic rays, 46 vertebrae. Fossils from Miocene. Length to 2 m (61/2 ft), weight to 140 kg (over 300 lb); surface waters (epipelagic) of warm seas; widespread.

      Suborder Trachipteroidei
 Ribbonlike, about 100 vertebrae.

      Family Trachipteridae (dealfishes)
 Pelvic fins with 5–9 rays, no anal fin, jaws toothed. Length to 1.2 m (4 ft); epipelagic. Worldwide in warm seas.

      Family Lophotidae (unicorn fishes)
 Scales lacking; pelvic fins small or absent, anal fin short. Fossils from Oligocene. Worldwide in warm seas.

      Family Regalecidae (oarfishes)
 Anal fin lacking; 1 pelvic ray elongated; jaws toothless; length to 9 m (30 ft); weight to 300 kg (660 lb). Mesopelagic, tropical.

      Suborder Stylephoroidei
 

      Family Stylephoridae
 Deep-sea forms with enlarged telescopic eyes, about 50 vertebrae, 2 filamentous caudal rays. Known from only a few specimens.

      Suborder Ateleopoidei
 

      Family Ateleopidae
 Specialized, deep-sea, bottom-living fishes, Indo-Pacific and Atlantic, usually placed among the primitive teleosts, but probably lampridiform.

      Suborder Mirapinnoidei
 

      Families Mirapinnidae and Eutaeniophoridae
 Three species of little-known mesopelagic fishes, usually placed as a distinct order of lower teleosts (Mirapinniformes), but probably larval lampridiforms.

      Suborder Megalomycteroidei
 

      Family Megalomycteridae
 Four rare, little-known, deep-sea genera, probably larval lampridiforms.

Order Atheriniformes
 Premaxilla greatly expanded between maxilla and mandible, without crossed ligaments controlling the upper jaw, infraorbital bone series incomplete.
      Suborder Exocoetoidei
 Lateral line complete and low on the flank in marine forms, the lower pharyngeal bones are fused, no parietals, 9–15 branchiostegals. Found worldwide, but especially abundant in the Indo-Pacific.

      Family Exocoetidae (halfbeaks and flying fishes)
 Lower jaw often extended; snout not modified. Surface marine waters and freshwaters, worldwide; length to 45 cm (18 in.). Fossil half-beaks in the middle Eocene.

      Family Belonidae (garfishes and needlefishes)
 Snout bones sutured together, both jaws elongated into a strongly toothed beak. Mostly temperate and tropical marine; a few freshwater; length to 120 cm (almost 48 in.). Fossils in the Oligocene.

      Family Scomberesocidae (sauries, skippers)
 Snout and jaws as in Belonidae but feebly toothed; small finlets behind dorsal and anal fins. Inshore temperate and tropical marine waters; length to 35 cm (almost 14 in.). Fossils in the Miocene.

      Suborder Cyprinodontoidei
 Lateral line represented by pits on the flank, 4–7 branchiostegal bones. Families mostly distinguished by reproductive specializations.

      Family Oryziatidae (medakas)
 Most primitive cyprinodonts; a single genus in freshwaters and brackish waters in Indonesia.

      Family Adrianichthyidae
 Mouth and snout enlarged and shovellike. Two genera in lakes in Celebes; length 7–20 cm (23/4 to almost 8 in.). Fossils in Late Tertiary in Celebes.

      Family Horaichthyidae
 Small fishes with anal fin modified, in males, for clasping female in mating. One genus, freshwater, India.

      Family Cyprinodontidae (killifishes or egg-laying topminnows)
 Circumtropical and temperate marine and freshwater, many genera. Many popular aquarium fishes; length to 15 cm (6 in.). Fossils in the Oligocene.

      Family Goodeidae (Mexican topminnows)
 Live-bearing, but male lacks elaborate intromittent organ found in poeciliids. About 10 genera, in rivers draining the Mexican Plateau; length to about 10 cm (4 in.).

      Family Jenynsiidae
 Small fishes with asymmetrical genital organs; 1 genus; rivers of South America.

      Family Anablepidae (four-eyed fishes)
 Characterized by specialized eye structure (see above Form and function); 1 genus, 2 species; surface waters in rivers and estuaries of South America.

      Family Poeciliidae (live bearers or viviparous topminnows)
 Native to tropical and subtropical America but introduced elsewhere for mosquito control. Freshwaters and coastal marine waters. Length 1.5 to about 15 cm (over 1/2 to 6 in.). Family includes mollies (Mollienesia), guppies (Lebistes), swordtails (Xiphophorus), and many other popular aquarium fishes, as well as the mosquito fishes (Gambusia).

      Suborder Atherinoidei
 Lateral line variable; 5–7 branchiostegal bones; separate spinous dorsal fin.

      Family Melanotaeniidae
 Many species; freshwater bodies of New Guinea and Australia. Compressed, deep-bodied; pointed snout; 5–20 cm (2 to 8 in.).

      Family Atherinidae (silversides)
 Lateral line absent; pelvic fins midway along belly; length 7–70 cm (23/4 to 271/2 in.). Coastal and freshwater, worldwide in warmer regions. Many genera. Fossils from middle Eocene.

      Family Isonidae
 Pectoral fins unusually high on body. Small marine fishes; Indian and Pacific Oceans. Two genera.

      Families Phallostethidae and Neostethidae
 Males with priapium, an organ derived from pectoral and pelvic girdles, functioning to clasp the female. Tiny fishes (3–5 cm [1 to 2 in.] long); confined to freshwaters and brackish waters in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Critical appraisal
      The whale fishes (cetomimids, rondeletiids, barbourisiids) are often placed in a separate order Cetomimiformes, thought to be more primitive than Beryciformes, but their “primitive” features appear to be due only to degeneration. The stephanoberycids, melamphaeids, and gibberichthyids are usually placed in a suborder Stephanoberycoidei, all other beryciforms being placed in the Berycoidei, but the major phyletic cleft in Beryciformes seems to be between the holocentrids and the remainder, which form a related group.

Colin Patterson

Additional Reading
R.M. Alexander, “Mechanisms of the Jaws of Some Atheriniform Fish,” J. Zool., 151:233–255 (1967), an account of methods of jaw protrusion; C.M. Breder and D.E. Rosen, Modes of Reproduction in Fishes (1966), especially good on reproductive modifications in atheriniforms, with a full bibliography; D.S. Jordan and C.L. Hubbs, “A Monographic Review of the Family Atherinidae or Silversides,” Stanford Univ. Publs., Univ. Ser., Studies in Ichthyology, 1:1–87 (1919), a classic review of atherinoids; C.T. Regan, “On the Anatomy, Classification, and Systematic Position of the Teleostean Fishes of the Suborder Allotriognathi,” Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., pp. 634–643 (1907), a classic paper in which the lampridiforms were first grouped together; R.R. Rofen, “The Whale-Fishes: Families Cetomimidae, Barbourisiidae and Rondeletiidae (order Cetunculi),” Galathea Rep., 1:255–260 (1959), an illustrated account of these deep-sea forms; D.E. Rosen, “The Relationships and Taxonomic Position of the Halfbeaks, Killifishes, Silversides and Their Relatives,” Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 127:219–267 (1964), a monograph, with a bibliography, in which the Atheriniformes were first grouped together, and with R.M. Bailey, “The Poeciliid Fishes (Cyprinodontiformes), Their Structure, Zoogeography, and Systematics,” ibid., 126:1–176 (1963), a monographic account of peociliids, and with C. Patterson, “The Structure and Relationships of the Paracanthopterygian Fishes,” ibid., 141:359–474 (1969), discussions of the relationships of fossil and living beryciforms, lampridiforms, and atheriniforms, with a bibliography.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Melanotaeniidae —   Melanotaeniidae …   Wikipedia Español

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