Caristiidae

Caristiidae Temporal range: Late Miocene–present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Platyberyx opalescens
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Scombriformes
Suborder:	Scombroidei
Family:	Caristiidae T. N. Gill & H. M. Smith, 1905 [1]
Genera [2]
Caristius Neocaristius Paracaristius Platyberyx † Absalomichthys † Chalcidichthys

Caristiidae, the manefishes, are a family of scombriform ray-finned fishes which today includes 19 extant species distributed in four genera.

Taxonomy

The following genera are known:

• Caristius Gill & Smith, 1905
• Neocaristius Stevenson & Kenaley, 2011
• Paracaristius Trunov, Kukuev & Parin, 2006
• Platyberyx Zugmayer, 1911

In addition, the extinct genera Chalcidichthys and Absalomichthys are known from the Late Miocene of Southern California.

Biology

They are deep-sea marine fishes found in the mesopelagic zone that eat siphonophores. ^[3] An adult manefish is less than 25 cm in length and most of them are entirely black, which helps camouflage them from predators. ^[4]

References

1. Richard van der Laan; William N. Eschmeyer & Ronald Fricke (2014). "Family-group names of Recent fishes". Zootaxa. 3882 (2): 001–230. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.3882.1.1 . PMID   25543675.
2. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Family Caristiidae". FishBase . February 2013 version.
3. "Bizarre deep sea manefish filmed". 2010-02-08. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
4. "The Family Manefish Revised Description 2019". Manefish.com. 2019-07-03. Retrieved 2019-07-09.