The Emmelichthyidae are a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of small to medium-sized
marine fish known commonly as rovers.
The family was once much larger, including a wide range of
plankton
Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a cr ...
-eating fish, but most of the genera 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 paral ...
, and were moved to other families.
The rovers are distributed in tropical and warmer temperate waters in the
Indo-Pacific
The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth.
In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...
, 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 definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
, eastern
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
, and
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...
.
[WoRMS (2014)]
Emmelichthyidae.
''In'': Froese, R. and D. Pauly, Editors. FishBase. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species.
These fish have protrusible, toothless or nearly toothless jaws, long dorsal fins, and forked tail fins with lobes that fold in like
scissors
Scissors are hand-operated shearing tools. A pair of scissors consists of a pair of metal blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles (bows) opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutt ...
. The largest species reach about 50 centimeters in length.
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See also
* List of fish families
This is a list of fish families sorted alphabetically by scientific name. There are 525 families in the list.
__NOTOC__
A - B - C - D - E - F -
G - H - I - J - K -
L - M - N - O - P - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z
- ...
References
Perciformes families
Marine fish families
{{Perciformes-stub