The pygmy jawfish (''Anoptoplacus pygmaeus'') is a species of

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

from the

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 ...

Opistognathidae Opistognathidae, the jawfishes, are a family of fishes in the order Blenniiformes. The family includes about 80 species. They are native to warmer parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, where found from the shallows to depths of a few ...

, the jawfishes. It is the only member of the

monospecific In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Anoptoplacus'' and the species and genus were described based on two specimens collected at depths of at the Arrowsmith Bank off Yucatan, Mexico. As the name suggests, the pygmy jawfish is a very small species and many of its meristic characters are reduced compared to other jawfishes.

References

{{taxonbar, from=Q60791220 Opistognathidae Fish described in 2017 Taxa named by William Farr Smith-Vaniz