Myroconger | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Anguilliformes |
Suborder: | Muraenoidei |
Family: | Myrocongridae T. N. Gill, 1890 |
Genus: | Myroconger Günther, 1870 |
Type species | |
Myroconger compressus Günther, 1870 [1] | |
Species | |
6, see text. |
Myroconger is the only genus of eels, the thin eels, in the family Myrocongridae. Very little is known about the group. [2]
Until recently, only a single specimen from this family was known. This individual had been caught off Saint Helena in 1868. In the 1990s and 2000s, deep-sea submersibles identified several more individuals, including four further species. [3] The first known species, M. compressus, was bright red in colour, but not all other species share this trait.
The currently recognized species in this genus are: [4] [5]
The Congridae are the family of conger and garden eels. Congers are valuable and often large food fishes, while garden eels live in colonies, all protruding from the sea floor after the manner of plants in a garden. The family includes over 220 species in 32 genera.
Ophichthidae is a family of fish in the order Anguilliformes, commonly known as the snake eels. The term "Ophichthidae" comes from Greek ophis ("serpent") and ichthys ("fish"). Snake eels are also burrowing eels. They are named for their physical appearance, as they have long, cylindrical, snake-like bodies. This family is found worldwide in tropical to warm temperate waters. They inhabit a wide range of habitats, from coastal shallows and even rivers, to depths below 800 m (2,600 ft). Most species are bottom dwellers, hiding in mud or sand to capture their prey of crustaceans and small fish, but some are pelagic.
The superorder Elopomorpha contains a variety of types of fishes that range from typical silvery-colored species, such as the tarpons and ladyfishes of the Elopiformes and the bonefishes of the Albuliformes, to the long and slender, smooth-bodied eels of the Anguilliformes. The one characteristic uniting this group of fishes is they all have leptocephalus larvae, which are unique to the Elopomorpha. No other fishes have this type of larvae.
Sawtooth eels are a family, Serrivomeridae, of eels found in temperate and tropical seas worldwide.
Cyema is a monospecific genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the monotypic family Cyematidae. The only species in the genus is Cyema atrum, the arrow eel, bobtail eel, bobtail snipe eel or deepwater eel. This species has circumglobal distribution.
Synaphobranchus is a genus of eels in the cutthroat eel family, Synaphobranchidae. It currently contains the following species:
Copionodon is a genus of catfishes of the family Trichomycteridae. It includes three species, C. lianae, C. orthiocarinatus, and C. pecten.
Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes, which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage and are usually predators.
Lipogenys gillii, the blackfin tapirfish, is a species of spiny eel in the family Notacanthidae, the only member of its genus. It is a benthic deep-sea fish occurring along the eastern coast of North America and in the southwestern Pacific near Australia at depths from 400 to 2,000 m.
Polyacanthonotus is a genus of spiny eels, with these currently recognized species:
Paraconger is a genus of eels in the family Congridae. It currently contains the following species:
Rhynchoconger is a genus of eels in the family Congridae.
Yirrkala is a genus of eels in the snake eel family Ophichthidae. It is named after Yirrkala, an indigenous community in Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Bassozetus is a genus of cusk-eels found in Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean.
Ophidion is a genus of cusk-eels.
Myroconger prolixus is an eel in the family Myrocongridae. It was described by Peter Henry John Castle and Philippe Béarez in 1995. It is a marine, deep-water dwelling eel which was described from a female specimen and ova taken from the Kaiyo Maru Seamount off of New Caledonia, in the western Pacific Ocean. It is known to dwell at a depth range of 260–280 m. The holotype specimen measured a total length of 38.3 cm.
Scolecenchelys puhioilo is an eel in the family Ophichthidae. It was described by John E. McCosker in 1979, originally under the genus Muraenichthys. The specific name puhioilo is derived from Hawaiian puhi oilo, which refers to "small eels about as large in diameter as a finger".
Gymnocranius is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Lethrinidae, the emperors and emperor breams. These fishes are found in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean.
Herpetoichthys fossatus, the mustachioed snake-eel, is a species of eel in the family Ophichthidae. It is found in the Gulf of California.
Pylorobranchus hearstorum, the gigantic worm eel, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Myrophinae, the worm eels, in the family Ophichthidae, which also includes the snake eels. This species is known from a single specimen, the holotype collected from the Verde Island Passage in the Philippines at 13.583-13.575°N, 120.382-120.411°E from a depth between 892 and 966 m. The species was described in 2014 by the American marine biologist John E. McCosker. The specific name honours the friends of McCosker and philanthropists William and Margaret Hearst, who sponsored the expedition the holotype was collected on. This single known specimen of this species had a total length of 121.8 cm (48.0 in).