Lanternfish

Not to be confused with Lophiiformes anglerfish (some of which have "lanterns" on their foreheads).

Lanternfish
Temporal range: Paleocene–Recent Putative Maastrichtian records[1][2]
Myctophum punctatum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Myctophiformes
Family: Myctophidae
T. N. Gill, 1893
Genera

See text

Lanternfish (or myctophids, from the Greek μυκτήρ myktḗr, "nose" and ophis, "serpent") are small mesopelagic fish of the large family Myctophidae. One of two families in the order Myctophiformes, the Myctophidae are represented by 246 species in 33 genera, and are found in oceans worldwide. Lanternfishes are aptly named after their conspicuous use of bioluminescence. Their sister family, the Neoscopelidae, are much fewer in number but superficially very similar; at least one neoscopelid shares the common name "lanternfish": the large-scaled lantern fish, Neoscopelus macrolepidotus.

Lanternfish are among the most widely distributed, diverse and populous vertebrates, with some estimates suggesting that they may have a total global biomass of 1.8 to 16 gigatonnes, accounting for up to 65% of all deep-sea fish biomass. Commercial fisheries for them exist off South Africa, in the sub-Antarctic, and in the Gulf of Oman.

  1. ^ Ueno, T.; Matsui, N. (1993). "Late Cretaceous fish fossils from Nemuro, Hokkaido, Japan". Memoirs of the National Science Museum, Tokyo. 26: 39–46.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Schwarzhans2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).