Order Lampridiformes

An order with seven morphologically diverse and mostly oceanic families with five families represented in Australian waters. Members usually have deep, compressed bodies, or are elongate and often ribbon-like. All have a unique form of highly protrusible upper jaw, whereby the maxilla extends along with the premaxilla during jaw protrusion.

Lampridiforms are mostly pelagic fishes widespread in oceanic waters including polar seas, usually at 100-1000 m. Some species are best known from specimens washed ashore.

Families in Australian waters:

References

Charter, S.R. & H.G. Moser. 1996. Lampridiformes, Lophotidae, Radiicephalidae, Trachipteridae. In The early stages of fishes in the California current region. California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations Atlas No. 33, pp. 659-677.

Olney, J.E. 1984. Lampridiformes: development and relationships, pp. 155-169, In Moser, H.G., W.J. Richards, D.M. Cohen, M.P. Fahay, A.W. Kendall, Jr, and S.L. Richardson (eds). Ontogeny and systematics of fishes. Spec. Publ. No. 1, Amer. Soc. Ichthy. Herpet., ix + 760 pp.

Olney, J.E. 1999. Lampridiformes, In Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem. Species identification guide for fisheries purposes. The living marine resources of the western central Pacific. Batoid fishes, chimeras and bony fishes. Part 1 (Elopidae to Linophrynidae). FAO, Rome.

Olney, J.E., G.D. Johnson & C.C. Baldwin. 1993. Phylogeny of lampridiform fishes. Bull. Mar. Sci. 52:137-169.