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Blennies
Blennies (from the Greek and , mucus, slime) are a diverse clade of ray-finned fish in the suborder Blennioidei of the percomorph order Blenniiformes. They inhabit marine, brackish, and occasionally freshwater habitats, and generally share similar morphology and behaviour. About 151 genera and nearly 900 species have been described within the order. Taxonomy The order was formerly classified as a suborder of the Perciformes. However, the 5th Edition of ''Fishes of the World'' divided the Perciformes into a number of new orders and the Blenniiformes were placed in the percomorph clade Ovalentaria alongside the such taxa as Cichliformes, Mugiliformes and Gobiesociformes. ''Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes'' added many more taxa, including the damselfishes and clingfishes, into the Blenniiformes, so the "true blennies" were redefined as the suborder Blennioidei. The six "true blenny" families are: * Blenniidae Rafinesque, 1810 - combtooth blennies, including the sabre-to ...
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Combtooth Blenny
Combtooth blennies are blenny, blenniiformids; Percomorpha, percomorph marine fish of the family Blenniidae, part of the Order (biology), order Blenniiformes. They are the largest family of blennies with around 401 known species in 58 genera. Combtooth blennies are found in tropical and subtropical waters in the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pacific and Indian Oceans; some species are also found in brackish and even freshwater environments. Description The body plan of the combtooth blennies is archetypal to all other blennioids; their blunt heads and eyes are large, with large continuous dorsal fins (which may have three to 17 spines). Their bodies are compressed, elongated, and scaleless; their small, slender pelvic fins (which are absent in only two species) are situated before their enlarged pectoral fins, and their tail fins are rounded. As their name would suggest, combtooth blennies are noted for the comb-like teeth lining their jaws. By far the largest species ...
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Blenniiformes
Blenniiformes is an order of percomorph fish in the clade Ovalentaria, of which it is the most diverse group. This order contains several well-known fish groups such as blennies and damselfish. The term is derived from the Latin word '' blennius'', which itself comes from the Ancient Greek word βλεννός (''blennos''), meaning "mucus" or "slime." This refers to the slimy coating that is often found on the scales of blenny fish. The earliest known member of this order is the stem group-damselfish '' Chaychanus'' from the Early Paleocene of Mexico. Taxonomy As with many other percomorphs, most members of this group were originally placed in the Perciformes. Previously, ''Fishes of the World'' defined this order as restricted to the blennies and their close relatives, and placed several taxa such as the damselfishes, jawfishes, and surfperches as indeterminate members of Ovalentaria. Phylogenetic evidence suggests that these families form a successive grade leading to ...
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Chaenopsidae
The blennioid family Chaenopsidae includes the pike-blennies, tube-blennies, and flagblennies, all percomorph marine fish in the order Blenniiformes. The family is strictly tropical, ranging from North to South America. Members are also present in waters off Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Fourteen genera and 91 species are represented, the largest being the sarcastic fringehead, ''Neoclinus blanchardi'', at in length; most are much smaller, and the group includes perhaps the smallest of all vertebrates, '' Acanthemblemaria paula'', measuring just long as an adult. With highly compressed bodies, some may be so elongated as to appear eel-like; chaenopsids are scaleless and lack lateral lines. Their heads are rough and may be armed with spines. There may be 17 to 28 spines in the dorsal fin, with two in the anal fin. The habit of taking up home in abandoned worm tubes has earned some species in this family the name "tube-blenny". Many will also inhabit empty clam shells, which also ...
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Flagblenny
The blennioid family Chaenopsidae includes the pike-blennies, tube-blennies, and flagblennies, all percomorph marine fish in the order Blenniiformes. The family is strictly tropical, ranging from North to South America. Members are also present in waters off Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Fourteen genera and 91 species are represented, the largest being the sarcastic fringehead, ''Neoclinus blanchardi'', at in length; most are much smaller, and the group includes perhaps the smallest of all vertebrates, '' Acanthemblemaria paula'', measuring just long as an adult. With highly compressed bodies, some may be so elongated as to appear eel-like; chaenopsids are scaleless and lack lateral lines. Their heads are rough and may be armed with spines. There may be 17 to 28 spines in the dorsal fin, with two in the anal fin. The habit of taking up home in abandoned worm tubes has earned some species in this family the name "tube-blenny". Many will also inhabit empty clam shells, which also se ...
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Ovalentaria
Ovalentaria is a clade of ray-finned fishes within the Percomorpha, referred to as a subseries. It is made up of a group of fish families which are referred to in ''Fishes of the World's'' fifth edition as'' incertae sedis'', as well as the orders Mugiliformes, Cichliformes, and Blenniiformes. It was named by W. L. Smith and T. J. Near in Wainwright ''et al.'' (2012) based on a molecular phylogeny, but the authors suggested that the group was united by the presence of demersal eggs that are attached to a substrate. Some authors have used the ordinal name Stiassnyiformes for a clade including Mugiloidei, Plesiopidae, Blenniiformes, Atherinomorpha, and Cichlidae, and this grouping does appear to be monophyletic. Classification Based on the Catalog of Fishes (2025), with additional clade names added when necessary: * Subseries Ovalentaria ** Infraseries Atherinomorpha *** Order Atheriniformes **** Suborder Atherinopsoidei ***** Family Atherinopsidae (New World silversides) ...
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Clinidae
Clinidae is a family of marine fish in the order Blenniiformes within the series Ovalentaria, part of the Percomorpha . Temperate blennies, the family ranges from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres. The family contains about 86 species in 20 genera, the 60-cm-long giant kelpfish (''Heterostichus rostratus'') being the largest; most are far smaller. With small cycloid scales, clinoid blennies may have a deep or slender build; some members of the family bear the name "snake blenny" and "eel blenny" for this reason. Dorsal spines outnumber soft rays; two spines are in the anal fin. Like many other blennies, clinids possess whisker-like structures on their heads called cirri. The majority of species possesses rich, highly variable colouration in shades of reddish-brown to olive, often with cryptic patterns; this suits the lifestyle of clinid blennies, which frequent areas of dense weed or kelp. Generally staying within interti ...
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Ophioblennius Steindachneri
Ophioblennius is a genus of combtooth blennies native to the Atlantic and to the Pacific coasts of the Americas. Species There are currently five recognized species in this genus: * '' Ophioblennius atlanticus'' (Valenciennes Valenciennes (, also , , ; ; or ; ) is a communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department, Hauts-de-France, France. It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced ..., 1836) (Horseface blenny) * '' Ophioblennius clippertonensis'' V. G. Springer, 1962 (Clipperton blenny) * '' Ophioblennius macclurei'' ( Silvester, 1915) (Redlip blenny) * '' Ophioblennius steindachneri'' D. S. Jordan & Evermann, 1898 (Large-banded blenny) * '' Ophioblennius trinitatus'' A. Miranda-Ribeiro, 1919 (Triple Blenny) Description Ophioblennius blennies have cylindrical bodies and blunt heads with cirri.Humann, P: "Snorkeling Guide to Marine Life", page 50. New World Publications,1995. They can ...
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Percomorpha
Percomorpha () is an extremely large and diverse clade of ray-finned fish. With more than 17,000 known species (including Scombroidei, tuna, Syngnathiformes, seahorses, gobies, Cichlidae, cichlids, flatfish, Labridae, wrasse, Perciformes, perches, Lophiiformes, anglerfish, and Tetraodontiformes, pufferfish) known from both marine and freshwater ecosystems, it is the most speciose clade of extant Vertebrate, vertebrates. Evolution Percomorpha are the most biodiversity, diverse group of teleost fish today. Teleosts, and percomorphs in particular, thrived during the Cenozoic Era (geology), era. Fossil evidence shows that there was a major increase in size and abundance of teleosts immediately after the mass extinction event at the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary ago. The oldest known percomorph fossils are of the early Tetraodontiformes, tetraodontiforms ''Protriacanthus'' and Cretatriacanthidae from the Santonian to Campanian of Italy and Slov ...
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Perciformes
Perciformes (), also called the Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish in the clade Percomorpha. ''Perciformes'' means " perch-like". Among the well-known members of this group are perches and darters ( Percidae), and also sea basses and groupers (Serranidae). This order contains many familiar freshwater temperate and tropical marine fish groups, but also extremophiles that have successfully colonized both the North and South Poles, as well as the deepest depths of the ocean. Taxonomy Formerly, this group was thought to be even more diverse than it is thought to be now, containing about 41% of all bony fish (about 10,000 species) and about 160 families, which is the most of any order within the vertebrates. However, many of these other families have since been reclassified within their own orders within the clade Percomorpha, significantly reducing the size of the group. In contrast to this splitting, other groups formerly considered distinct, such as ...
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Cichliformes
Cichliformes is an order of fishes. Its members were previously classified under the order Perciformes, but now many authorities consider it to be an independent order within the subseries Ovalentaria. The earliest fossils are known from the Eocene. Taxonomy There are three families within the Cichliformes; the leaffishes are a small family consisting of 4 genera and 5 species, the convict blennies are a small family consisting of a single genus and two species, while the cichlids are one of the largest vertebrate families with over 202 genera and more than 1700 species. These families look physically dissimilar from one another, with only molecular data revealing their close relationships. The following taxonomy is based on the Catalog of Fishes (2025) * Polycentridae T. N. Gill, 1858 (leaffishes) * Pholidichthyidae D.S. Jordan, 1896 (Convict blennies) * Cichlidae Cichlids () are a large, diverse, and widespread family of percomorph fish in the family Cichlidae, o ...
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