| Marine hatchetfishes Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Half-naked hatchetfish, Argyropelecus hemigymnus eating a shrimp | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Stomiiformes |
| Family: | Sternoptychidae |
| Subfamily: | Sternoptychinae |
| Diversity | |
| 3 genera, some 40 species | |
Marine hatchetfishes or deep-sea hatchetfishes are small deep-sea mesopelagic ray-finned fish of the stomiiform subfamily Sternoptychinae. They should not be confused with the freshwater hatchetfishes, which are not particularly closely related Teleostei in the characiform family Gasteropelecidae.[1]
The scientific name means "Sternoptyx-subfamily", from Sternoptyx (the type genus) + the standard animal family suffix "-inae". It ultimately derives from Ancient Greek stérnon (στέρνον, "breast") + ptýx (πτύξ, "a fold/crease") + Latin forma ("external form"), the Greek part in reference to the thorax shape of marine hatchetfishes.[2][3][4]
- ^ Nelson, Joseph S. (2006): Fishes of the World (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p.209 ISBN 0-471-25031-7
- ^ Woodhouse, S.C. (1910): English-Greek Dictionary - A Vocabulary of the Attic Language. George Routledge & Sons Ltd., Broadway House, Ludgate Hill, E.C. Searchable JPEG fulltext
- ^ Glare, P.G.W. (ed.) (1968-1982): Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed.). Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 0-19-864224-5
- ^ FishBase (2006): Family Sternoptychidae. Version of 2006-OCT-10. Retrieved 2009-OCT-02.