''Macroramphosus'', snipefishes or bellowfishes, is a genus of

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% ...

es found in tropical and subtropical oceans at depths down to . According to

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, they are part of the family Centriscidae, but Nelson (2016) split that family, in which case the genus ''Macroramphosus'' is in the family Macroramphosidae. They have long second spines on their

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

s and tiny mouths at the tip of their greatly elongated snouts. The bodies of snipefish are more streamlined than in the related bellowfishes. They reach a maximum length of about , and are silvery or reddish in colour. They are sometimes found in large

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. This is the only genus on the monogeneric family Macroranphosidae but some authorities include the genera '' Centriscops'' and '' Notopogon'' in this family too.

Species

Currently, two recognized species are placed in this genus: * '' Macroramphosus gracilis'' ( R. T. Lowe, 1839) (slender snipefish) * '' Macroramphosus scolopax'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, t ...

, 1758) (longspine snipefish)

References

Centriscidae Marine fish genera Taxa named by Bernard Germain de Lacépède {{Syngnathiformes-stub