Family: EMMELICHTHYIDAE, Rover, Rovers

FAMILY EMMELICHTHYIDAE

ROVERS

Body elongate, oval, compressed; head large, pointed; mouth highly protrusible; rear bone of top jaw expanded, scaled, exposed when mouth is closed; jaws toothless or with a few minute conical teeth; rear edge of opercle with 2-3 flat points; lower corner of preopercle rounded, projecting a little to rear as a thin plate; preopercle smooth to weakly serrated; gill rakers long and numerous (33-44); dorsal fin deeply notched, XI-XIII, 9-12; anal fin III, 9-10; tail fin strongly forked; pectoral fin 18-20; pelvics I, 5; head and body covered with finely rough scales; soft dorsal and anal fins with a scaly sheath at the base, which covers most of last 2-3 rays; tail heavily scaled on its base; lateral line with 68-73 tubed scales.

This circumglobal family of deepwater fishes includes 3 genera and 15 species; 1 member of each of 2 genera in our area.

PREPARED BY D ROSS ROBERTSON, AFTER HEEMSTRA (2002)