Lampriformes is an

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

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 ...

. Members are collectively called lamprids (which is more properly used for the Lampridae) or lampriforms, and unite such open-

ocean The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian, Southern Ocean ...

and partially

deep-sea The deep sea is broadly defined as the ocean depth where light begins to fade, at an approximate depth of or the point of transition from continental shelves to continental slopes. Conditions within the deep sea are a combination of low tempe ...

Teleost Teleostei (; Ancient Greek, Greek ''teleios'' "complete" + ''osteon'' "bone"), members of which are known as teleosts (), is, by far, the largest group of ray-finned fishes (class Actinopterygii), with 96% of all neontology, extant species of f ...

ei as the crestfishes,

oarfish Oarfish are large and extremely long pelagic lampriform fish belonging to the small family (biology), family Regalecidae. Found in areas spanning from Temperate climate, temperate ocean zones to tropical ones, yet rarely seen by humans, the oa ...

opah The opah, also commonly known as moonfish, sunfish (not to be confused with Molidae), cowfish, kingfish, and redfin ocean pan are large, colorful, deep-bodied Pelagic zone, pelagic lampriform Fish, fishes comprising the genus ''Lampris'', of ...

s, and ribbonfishes. A

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

for this order is Allotriognathi, while an often-seen, but apparently incorrect, spelling variant is Lampridiformes. They contain seven extant

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

which are generally small but highly distinct, and a mere 12 lampriform

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

with some 20

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), ...

altogether are recognized. They are the only extant members of the superorder Lamprimorpha, which was formerly diverse throughout much of the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

. The

scientific name In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

literally means "shaped (like the) bright (one)", as "lampr-", meaning bright, comes from ''lampris'', the generic name for the

. In contrast, most other living lampriforms are actually ribbon-like and not very similar to the disc-shaped opahs in habitus. They are, however, quite distinctly united by their

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

, and the family's

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or Taxon, taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, M ...

, as well as the most ancient

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

s of this order suggest the original lampriform was rather "opah-shaped". The scientific name is a combination of '' Lampris'' (the

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus (''genus typica'') is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearin ...

) + the standard

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

order

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

"-formes". It ultimately derives from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''lamprós'' (λαμπρός, "bright") +

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''forma'' ("external form"), the former in reference to brilliant coloration of opahs.

Description and ecology

These

ic fishes are

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

feeders that stay well above the

sea floor The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as seabeds. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...

, and normally occur in waters 100–1000 m deep. They are typically brightly coloured as adults, often with brilliant

crimson Crimson is a rich, deep red color, inclining to purple. It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, '' Kermes vermilio'', but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red col ...

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. F ...

s. Lampriforms have highly variable body forms, but they are generally laterally compressed. Some are rounded in lateral view, while others are very elongated. The former are termed bathysomes—"deep-bodies", from

''bathýs'' (βᾶθύς) "deep" + ''sōma'' (σῶμα) "body"—and the latter taeniosomes—"ribbon-bodies",

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''tainía'' (ταινία) "ribbon". They vary greatly in size, too, ranging from less than in the sailfin moonfishes ( Veliferidae) to '' Regalecus glesne'', the longest of all living

bony fishes Osteichthyes ( ; ), also known as osteichthyans or commonly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse clade of vertebrate animals that have endoskeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes (cartila ...

, which may reach in length. The lampriforms have 84 to 96 total

vertebra Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spina ...

e; an orbitosphenoid bone is present in some members of this order. Their

premaxilla The premaxilla (or praemaxilla) is one of a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the upper jaw of many animals, usually, but not always, bearing teeth. In humans, they are fused with the maxilla. The "premaxilla" of therian mammals h ...

completely excludes the

maxilla In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...

from the gape, but the

jaw The jaws are a pair of opposable articulated structures at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term ''jaws'' is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth ...

s are highly protrusible, nonetheless. The upper jaw's protrusion is achieved in a unique way: the maxilla, instead of being

ligament A ligament is a type of fibrous connective tissue in the body that connects bones to other bones. It also connects flight feathers to bones, in dinosaurs and birds. All 30,000 species of amniotes (land animals with internal bones) have liga ...

ously attached to the

ethmoid The ethmoid bone (; from ) is an unpaired bone in the skull that separates the nasal cavity from the brain. It is located at the roof of the nose, between the two orbit (anatomy), orbits. The cubical (cube-shaped) bone is lightweight due to a sp ...

and

palatine A palatine or palatinus (Latin; : ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman Empire, Roman times.

, slides in and out with the highly protractile premaxilla. The

pelvic fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral (belly) surface of fish, and are the lower of the only two sets of paired fins (the other being the laterally positioned pectoral fins). The pelvic fins are homologous to the hi ...

s have up to 17 rays and are placed rather far toward the front of the animal, but they can be missing entirely. The

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 ...

is long, and tends to extend along most of the length of the body. Fin spines are absent in all. Some have a physoclistous gas bladder, while others have none. They either have tiny

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

or naked skin.Olney (1998), Nelson (2006): p.226

Systematics and evolution

The Lampriformes are anatomically similar to some

Acanthopterygii Acanthopterygii (meaning "spiny-finned one") is a superorder of teleost, bony fishes in the class Actinopterygii. Members of this superorder are sometimes called ray-finned fishes for the characteristic sharp, bony rays in their fins; however th ...

at a first glance, but more detailed studies reveal they are not as advanced, and many authors assign them to a basal position inside the advanced spiny- rayed

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 ...

called Acanthomorpha, as

monotypic 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 "unisp ...

superorder 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 ...

Lampridiomorpha. Unlike their presumed relatives, they lack fin spines, however, and other authors have considered them to form a lineage just outside the Acanthomorpha, and the

sister taxon 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 ...

of the Myctophiformes.

Molecular A molecule is a group of two or more atoms that are held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions that satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, ...

data also support the view that the Lampriformes are close to the advanced Teleostei. But the data do not agree on their exact relationships, and the Myctophiformes are also inferred to be close to the

Protacanthopterygii Protacanthopterygii is a superorder of ray-finned fish. They inhabit both Marine (ocean), marine and freshwater habitats. They appear to have evolved in the Cretaceous or perhaps late Jurassic, originating probably roughly 150 million years ago; ...

, one of the core groups of moderately advanced teleosts. As modern

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 ...

tries to avoid a profusion of small

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

, and the delimitation of the Euteleostei (

sensu ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

stricto'' and their allies) versus Acanthopterygii remains uncertain, the

systematics Systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: phylogenetic trees, phylogenies). Phy ...

and taxonomy of the Lampriformes among the teleosts are in need of further study. Analectis

The lampriforms diverged from other teleosts in the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

, perhaps 80 million years ago (Mya) or slightly more, considering that the oldest-known lampriforms, '' Nardovelifer'', date from the late

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campa ...

epoch and are already clearly assignable to the present order. The basal lampriforms were bathysomes, while the taeniosome body shape is apomorphic and seems to have evolved only once. The order underwent its main

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...

in the

Paleocene The Paleocene ( ), or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), ...

period; the opah-like Turkmenidae were a family of lampriforms thriving at that time, but going extinct around the start of the

Neogene The Neogene ( ,) is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period million years ago. It is the second period of th ...

, about 23 Mya. Other

Lampridiformes are '' Bajaichthys'', '' Palaeocentrotus'', and '' Veronavelifer''.

Classification

The order is occasionally divided into the Bathysomi and the Taeniosomi. The former are a

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

assemblage, thus effectively

synonymous A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

with the entire order, while the latter can be considered a valid

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 ...

. Including fossil taxa, the classification of the Lampriformes in

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

sequence, with the number of living

and

, can thus be given as: Basal and ''

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 ...

'' * Genus '' Bathysoma'' (fossil) * Genus '' Nardovelifer'' (fossil) * Genus '' Iratusichthys'' (fossil) * Genus '' Palaeocentrotus'' (fossil) * Genus '' Whitephippus'' (fossil) * Family Turkmenidae (fossil) * Family Veliferidae — sailfin moonfishes (two genera, six species) * Family Lampridae — opahs (one genus, two species) Suborder Taeniosomi * Family Lophotidae — crestfishes (two genera, three species) * Family

Radiicephalidae ''Radiicephalus'' is a genus of fishes in the monotypic family ''Radiicephalidae''. It was formerly thought to be a Monotypic taxon, monotypic genus, comprising the single species ''Radiicephalus elongatus'', commonly known as tapertail, until th ...

— tapertail (monotypic) * Family Trachipteridae — ribbonfishes (three genera, 10 species) * Family Regalecidae — oarfishes (two genera, three species)

Timeline of genera

ImageSize = width:1000px height:auto barincrement:15px PlotArea = left:10px bottom:50px top:10px right:10px Period = from:-66 till:10 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:-66 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:-66 TimeAxis = orientation:hor AlignBars = justify Colors = #legends id:CAR value:claret id:ANK value:rgb(0.4,0.3,0.196) id:HER value:teal id:HAD value:green id:OMN value:blue id:black value:black id:white value:white id:cenozoic value:rgb(0.54,0.54,0.258) id:paleogene value:rgb(0.99,0.6,0.32) id:paleocene value:rgb(0.99,0.65,0.37) id:eocene value:rgb(0.99,0.71,0.42) id:oligocene value:rgb(0.99,0.75,0.48) id:neogene value:rgb(0.999999,0.9,0.1) id:miocene value:rgb(0.999999,0.999999,0) id:pliocene value:rgb(0.97,0.98,0.68) id:quaternary value:rgb(0.98,0.98,0.5) id:pleistocene value:rgb(0.999999,0.95,0.68) id:holocene value:rgb(0.999,0.95,0.88) BarData= bar:eratop bar:space bar:periodtop bar:space bar:NAM1 bar:NAM2 bar:NAM3 bar:NAM4 bar:NAM5 bar:NAM6 bar:NAM7 bar:NAM8 bar:NAM9 bar:NAM10 bar:NAM11 bar:space bar:period bar:space bar:era PlotData= align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25 shift:(7,-4) bar:periodtop from: -66 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text:

from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text:

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text:

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Plio. from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text: Pleist. from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H. bar:eratop from: -66 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:

Paleogene The Paleogene Period ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Neogene Period Ma. It is the fir ...

from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:

from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text: Q. PlotData= align:left fontsize:M mark:(line,white) width:5 anchor:till align:left color:paleocene bar:NAM1 from: -66 till: -61.7 text: Bathysoma color:paleocene bar:NAM2 from: -58.7 till: -55.8 text: Turkmene color:paleocene bar:NAM3 from: -58.7 till: -55.8 text: Palaeocentrotus color:paleocene bar:NAM4 from: -58.7 till: -55.8 text: Danatinia color:eocene bar:NAM5 from: -54 till: -50 text: Whitephippus color:eocene bar:NAM7 from: -48.6 till: -37.2 text: Eolophotes color:oligocene bar:NAM8 from: -33.9 till: -28.4 text:

Analectis ''Analectis pala'' is an extinct Lampriformes, lamprid of the family (biology), family Turkmenidae, of which it was the last surviving member. Its fossils are found from Early Oligocene strata of the Krasnodar Krai, Russia. ''Analectis'', as with ...

color:oligocene bar:NAM9 from: -33.9 till: 0 text: Protolophotus color:miocene bar:NAM10 from: -11.608 till: 0 text: Lampris PlotData= align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25 bar:period from: -66 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text:

from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text:

from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:

from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text:

from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Plio. from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text: Pleist. from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H. bar:era from: -66 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:

from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:

from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text: Q.

Footnotes

References

* *

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

(2000)
Order Lampriformes
Version of 2000-OCT-17. Retrieved 2009-SEP-30. * Glare, P.G.W. (ed.) (1968–1982): ''

Oxford Latin Dictionary The ''Oxford Latin Dictionary'' (or ''OLD'') is the standard English lexicon of Classical Latin, compiled from sources written before AD 200. Begun in 1933, it was published in fascicles between 1968 and 1982; a lightly revised second edition ...

'' (1st ed.). Oxford University Press, Oxford. * Nelson, Joseph S. (2006): ''

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 ...

'' (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. * Olney, John E. (1998): Lampriformes. ''In:'' : ''Encyclopedia of Fishes'': 167–169. Academic Press, San Diego. * Woodhouse, S.C. (1910): ''English-Greek Dictionary - A Vocabulary of the Attic Language''. George Routledge & Sons Ltd., Broadway House, Ludgate Hill, E.C
Searchable JPEG fulltext
* {{Authority control Articles which contain graphical timelines Extant Campanian first appearances Ray-finned fish orders Taxa named by Charles Tate Regan