Lancetfish

For the United States Navy submarine, see USS Lancetfish (SS-296).

Lancetfishes
Temporal range: Middle Miocene-Recent[1]
Longnose lancetfish, Alepisaurus ferox
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Aulopiformes
Family: Alepisauridae
Swainson, 1839
Genus: Alepisaurus
R. T. Lowe, 1833

Lancetfishes are large oceanic predatory ray-finned fishes in the genus Alepisaurus ("scaleless lizard") in the monogeneric family Alepisauridae.[2]

Lancetfishes grow up to 2 m (6.6 ft) in length. Very little is known about their biology, though they are widely distributed in all oceans, except the polar seas.[3] Specimens have been recorded as far north as Greenland.[4] They are often caught as bycatch by vessels long-lining for tuna.

The generic name is from Greek a- meaning "without", lepis meaning "scale", and sauros meaning "lizard".

  1. ^ Sepkoski, J. (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology. 364. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
  2. ^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Family Alepisauridae". FishBase. February 2006 version.
  3. ^ Kubota, T.; Uyeno, T. (1978). "On some meristic characters of lancetfish, Alepisaurus, collected from Suruga Bay, Japan". Journal of Faculty of Marine Science and Technology, Tokai University. 11: 63–69.
  4. ^ Jensen, A. S. (1948). Contributions to the Ichthyofauna of Greenland. Skrifter Univ. Zool. Mus. Københaven. Vol. 9. pp. 1–182. OCLC 83357750.