Ogcocephalidae is a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

anglerfish The anglerfish are ray-finned fish in the order Lophiiformes (). Both the order's common name, common and scientific name comes from the characteristic mode of predation, in which a modified dorsal Fish fin#Ray-fins, fin ray acts as a Aggressiv ...

specifically adapted for a

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning "the depths". ...

lifestyle of crawling about on the seafloor. Ogcocephalid anglerfish are sometimes referred to as batfishes,Family Ogcocephalidae - Batfishes.
FishBase. 2016. deep-sea batfishes, handfishes, and seabats.Ogcocephalidae.
Australian Museum. They are found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide. They are mostly found at depths between , but have been recorded as deep as . A few species live in much shallower coastal waters and, exceptionally, may enter river estuaries.

Taxonomy

Ogcocephalidae was first proposed as a separate family, the Chaunacidae, by the American

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Universi ...

in 1895. Charles Tate Regan placed this family within the division Antennariformes within his suborder Lophiodea when he classified the order Pediculati, his grouping of the toadfishes and anglerfishes. In 1981

Theodore Wells Pietsch III Theodore Wells Pietsch III (born March 6, 1945) is an American systematist and evolutionary biologist especially known for his studies of anglerfishes. Pietsch has described 72 species and 14 genera of fishes and published numerous scientific pa ...

realized that the

monophyly In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent comm ...

of Regan's 1912 groupings within his Lophoidea had not been confirmed. Pietsch proposed a sister relationship between the

sea toad The sea toads and coffinfishes are a Family (biology), family, the Chaunacidae, of deep-sea Actinopterygii, ray-finned fishes belonging to the monotypic suborder Chaunacoidei within the order Lophiiformes, the anglerfishes. These are bottom-dwelli ...

s and the Ogcocephalidae, however, was unable to identify any grouping that was a sister group to both the Chaunacidae and Ogcocephalidae nor did he find any osteological characters to support or otherwise their classification within the Antennariiformes. He, tentatively, retained both groups within the

Antennarioidei Antennarioidei is a suborder of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Lophiiformes, the anglerfishes. Taxonomy Antennarioidei was first proposed as a taxonomic grouping in 1912 by the English ichthyologist Charles Tate Regan. The 5th e ...

even although he was unable to establish the monophyly of the four families Regan classified in the Antennariiformes in 1912. In 1984 Pietsch classified the Ogcocephalidae in the monotypic suborder Ogcocephaloidei within the Lophiiformes. This is the classification followed by the 5th edition of ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' is a standard reference for the systematics of fishes. It was first written in 1976 by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011). Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of t ...

''. The most basal genus in the Ogcocephalidae is ''Halieutaea'' and this is the

sister group In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to the rest of the family. The remaining genera divide into two

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

s, an eastern Pacific/western Atlantic clade; including ''Ogccephalus'', ''Zalieutes'' and ''Halieutichthys'' and a

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

clade, containing the remaining genera.

Genera

Ogcocephalidae contains the following genera:

Characteristics

Ogcocephaloidei batfishes are dorsoventrally compressed fishes similar in appearance to rays, with a large circular or triangular head (box-shaped in ''Coelophrys''), and a small tail. The flattened head and body of these fishes is often referred to as the "disc" and is made up of the head and the body as far as the axilla of the pelvic fins, the forward edge of the disc is made up of the extended bones of the operculum sweeping backwards from the cranium and surrounding the trunk on either side. The largest members of the family are approximately in

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of fish anatomy, their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is ...

. The

illicium ''Illicium'' is a genus of flowering plants treated as part of the family Schisandraceae,

(a modified

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

ray on the front of the head supporting the esca, a bulbous lure) may be retracted into an illicial cavity above the mouth. The pelvic and anal fins of many species are stout and thick-skinned, so as to support the body off the substrate. These fins also enable batfishes to walk on the seafloor, though the irregular shape of the fins causes most batfishes to swim awkwardly. Many species have large scales forming tubercules or

buckler A buckler (French ''bouclier'' 'shield', from Old French ''bocle, boucle'' ' boss') is a small shield, up to 45 cm (up to 18 in) in diameter, gripped in the fist with a central handle behind the boss. It became more common as a companio ...

s which form an armour for the fish. These tubercles can be tiny and have long terminal spines, these create the impression that these fishes have a covering of coarse hair. They may also be large and highly calcified, and set closely together to create the appearance of a

carapace A carapace is a dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the unde ...

. They are elaborately shaped, some have bosses, others crests and others have a simple pyramidal shape with no strong relief but these are highly enlarged and have robust terminal spines. The scales along the

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelia ...

are typical scales, sometimes boat shaped, with perforations for the emergent neuromasts.

Distribution and habitat

Ogcocephaloidei batfishes are found in the Indian, Pacific and Western Atlantic Oceans, with 1 species present in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. These benthic fishes are found in tropical to subtropical waters. They are fishes of the outer

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...

and the

continental slope A continental margin is the outer edge of continental crust abutting oceanic crust under coastal waters. It is one of the three major zones of the ocean floor, the other two being deep-ocean basins and mid-ocean ridges. The continental margi ...

, typically found at depths between , although one species has been found at and others have been found inshore and even within the upstream reaches of rivers. The species in the eastern Pacific/western Atlantic clades have the widest depth ranges with the "Old World" species being restricted to deeper waters.

Biology

Ogcocephalidae fishes do have a luminous esca, as in some other groups of anglerfishes, but secretes a fluid, lasting approximately two minutes, thought to act as a chemical lure which attracts prey such as crabs, snails, shrimp, and small fish. Analysis of their stomach contents indicates that batfishes feed on fish, crustaceans, and

polychaete Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine Annelid, annelid worms, common name, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called c ...

worms. These fishes are assumed not to guard their eggs and, to date, all known larvae and post larvae are pelagic. Batfishes are known to use a unique mode of locomotion where they use their pelvic and fins to walk along the seafloor instead of swim.

Utilisation

Ogcocephalidae fishes are too small to be of interest to fisheries but some species have been kept in aquariums.

Gallery

Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.ART.537 - Halieutaea stellata - Yūshi Ishizaki - Cock Blomhoff Collection.jpg, Painting of '' Halieutaea stellata'' by Ishizaki Yūshi, 1825 Malthopsis lutea.jpg, The longnose seabat (''Malthopsis lutea)

References

External links

* Deep sea fish Marine fish families Taxa named by David Starr Jordan {{Lophiiformes-stub