Emmelichthyidae is a small

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 ...

of small to medium-sized marine

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 ...

es known commonly as redbaits, rovers, bonnetmouths or rubyfishes. The Emmelichthyidae are poorly known even among researchers who work in fish

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

, and as a result much is unknown about

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

in the family, such as how they feed, breed, and otherwise behave. The most recently discovered species of the family, the papillated redbait (''

Emmelichthys papillatus ''Emmelichthys papillatus'' (the papillated redbait) is a species of fish in the genus ''Emmelichthys''. Specimens of the species were collected from fish markets on the islands of Panay and Cebu in the Visayas region of the Philippines, and it w ...

''). was not identified and described until 2024.

Taxonomy

Emmelichthyidae was first proposed as a taxonomic grouping in 1867 by the Cuban naturalist

Felipe Poey Felipe Poey (May 26, 1799 – January 28, 1891) was a Cuban zoologist. Biography Poey was born in Havana, the son of French and Spanish parents. He spent several years (1804 to 1807) of his life in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Pau then studied ...

. The fifth 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 ...

'' classifies the family in the

suborder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized ...

Sciaenoidei Sciaenoidei is a suborder of ray-finned fishes belonging to the Order (biology), order Acanthuriformes. Taxonomy The suborder was first proposed in 1828 by the French zoologist Georges Cuvier. The 5th edition of ''Fishes of the World'' classifies ...

, alongside the drum family

Sciaenidae Sciaenidae is a family (biology), family of ray-finned fishes belonging to the Order (biology), order Acanthuriformes. They are commonly called drums or croakers in reference to the repetitive throbbing or drumming sounds they make. The family co ...

, in the order

Acanthuriformes Acanthuriformes is a large, diverse order of mostly marine ray-finned fishes, part of the Percomorpha clade. In the past, members of this clade were placed in the suborders Acanthuroidea and Percoidea of the order Perciformes, but this treatment ...

. Other authorities classify the Emmelichthyidae and the Sciaenidae as ''

incertae sedis or is a term used for a taxonomy (biology), taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

'' within the series

Eupercaria Percomorpha () is an extremely large and diverse clade of ray-finned fish. With more than 17,000 known species (including tuna, seahorses, gobies, cichlids, flatfish, wrasse, perches, anglerfish, and pufferfish) known from both marine and fresh ...

. The ''

Catalog of Fishes Catalog of Fishes is a comprehensive on-line database and reference work on the scientific names of fish species and genera. It is global in its scope and is hosted by the California Academy of Sciences. It has been compiled and is continuously up ...

'' retains this family within the Acanthuriformes but does not recognise the suborder Sciaenoidei. The family was formerly regarded as being much larger, including a wide range of

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that drift in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) but are unable to actively propel themselves against ocean current, currents (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are ca ...

-eating fish, but most of the genera previously included were discovered to be unrelated examples of

parallel evolution Parallel evolution is the similar development of a trait in distinct species that are not closely related, but share a similar original trait in response to similar evolutionary pressure.Zhang, J. and Kumar, S. 1997Detection of convergent and pa ...

, and were moved to other families.

Genera

The family Emmelichthyidae contains the following three genera: The three genera include a combined 18

Characteristics

Emmelichthyidae are streamlined fishes with much of their heads and bodies covered in small

ctenoid scale A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as w ...

s which also extend on the base of both the

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage The fus ...

and

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

. They have distensible jaws and large mouths with the maxillae widely expanded and clearly scaled. The lower jaw protrudes slightly and the teeth highly reduced or there are none at all. The rear margin of the operculum has a pair of flat spines. The dorsal fin is long and may be divided into two fins with the anal fin being similar and opposite the soft-rayed portion of the dorsal fin. The

caudal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

has a deep fork. Typically these fish do not exceed in length. Emmelichthyidae are usually bright shades of red, orange, and pink.

Distribution

Emmelichthyidae are deep-water fish distributed in tropical and warmer temperate waters in the

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

, southern

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

, and eastern

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

Oceans and the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

.WoRMS (2014)
Emmelichthyidae.
''In'': Froese, R. and D. Pauly, Editors. FishBase. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species.

References

{{Authority control Acanthuriformes families Marine fish families Taxa named by David Starr Jordan

Taxonomy

Genera

Characteristics

Distribution

See also

References