Anglerfish
Melanocetidae: humpback anglerfish, Melanocetus johnsonii
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Actinopterygii Order: Lophiiformes
Suborders
Antennarioidei Lophioidei Ogcocephalioidei See text for families. Image File history File links Humpback_anglerfish. ... Species Melanocetus eustalus Melanocetus johnsonii Melanocetus murrayi Melanocetus niger Melanocetus rossi Black seadevils are small, deep-sea lophiiform fish comprising the family Melanocetidae. ... The humpback angler is one of 200+ species of anglerfish. ... For other uses, see Scientific classification (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Animal (disambiguation). ... Typical Classes See below Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates. ... Orders See text The Actinopterygii are the ray-finned fish. ... Genera Lophiodes Lophiomus Lophius Sladenia See text for species. ...

Monkfish in natural environment

Antennariidae: striated frogfish, Antennarius striatus

Linophrynidae: Haplophryne mollis

Chaunacidae: pink frogmouth, Chaunax pictus: B.K. Phillips

Ceratiidae: Krøyer's deep sea angler fish, Ceratias holboelli

Anglerfish are bony fish in the order Lophiiformes^[1], named for their characteristic mode of predation, wherein a fleshy growth from the fish's head (the esca) acts as a lure; this is considered analogous to angling. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1280x960, 617 KB) I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1280x960, 617 KB) I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ... For the TV series character, see The Fast Show. ... Image File history File links Antennarius_striatus. ... Image File history File links Antennarius_striatus. ... Genera Allenichthys Antennarius Antennatus Echinophryne Histiophryne Histrio Kuiterichthys Lophiocharon Nudiantennarius Phyllophryne Rhycherus Tathicarpus See text for species. ... Binomial name Antennarius striatus (Shaw, 1794) The striated frogfish, Antennarius striatus, is a frogfish of the family Antennariidae, found in all subtropical oceans, to depths of between 10 and 210 m. ... Image File history File links Hamol_u0. ... Image File history File links Hamol_u0. ... Genera Acentrophryne Borophryne Haplophryne Linophryne Photocorynus Leftvents are small, deep-sea lophiiform fish comprising the family Linophrynidae. ... Haplophryne mollis Haplophryne mollis The Soft Leafvent Angler Haplophryne mollis is a sexually dimorphic species of fish of the family Linophrynidae. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1008x393, 227 KB) B.K. Phillips Pink frogmouth, Chaunax pictus. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1008x393, 227 KB) B.K. Phillips Pink frogmouth, Chaunax pictus. ... Genera Bathychaunax Chaunax See text for species. ... Binomial name Chaunax pictus Lowe, 1846 The pink frogmouth, Chaunax pictus, is a sea toad of the family Chaunacidae, found circumglobally on continental shelves and slopes in tropical to temperate waters (except the Caribbean Sea), at depths of between 200 and 660 m. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1143x567, 377 KB) Krøyers deep sea angler fish, Ceratias holboelli. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1143x567, 377 KB) Krøyers deep sea angler fish, Ceratias holboelli. ... Genera Ceratias Cryptopsaras See text for species. ... Binomial name Krøyer, 1845 The Kroyers deep sea angler fish, Ceratias holboelli, is a seadevil of the family Ceratiidae, found in all oceans, at depths of from 1,000 to 2,000 m. ... In scientific classification used in biology, the order (Latin: ordo, plural ordines) is a rank between class and family (termed a taxon at that rank). ... Predator and Prey redirect here. ... In-line spinner lure with ring, dish, body/weight and hook In terms of sport fishing, a lure is an object attached to the end of the fishing line and designed to resemble and move like an item of fish prey. ... Angling. ...

Anglerfish are both pelagic and benthic fishes of the abyss (e.g. Ceratiidae) and the continental shelf (e.g. the frogfishes Antennariidae and the monkfish/goosefish Lophiidae) respectively. They occur worldwide. Pelagic forms are most laterally compressed whereas the benthic forms are often extremely dorsoventrally compressed (depressed) often with large upward pointing mouths. The pelagic zone is the part of the open sea or ocean comprising the water column, i. ... In marine geology and biology, benthos are the organisms and habitats of the sea floor; in freshwater biology they are the organisms and habitats of the bottoms of lakes, rivers, and creeks. ... Genera Ceratias Cryptopsaras See text for species. ... Genera Allenichthys Antennarius Antennatus Echinophryne Histiophryne Histrio Kuiterichthys Lophiocharon Nudiantennarius Phyllophryne Rhycherus Tathicarpus See text for species. ... Genera Lophiodes Lophiomus Lophius Sladenia See text for species. ...

Predation

The fish are named for their characteristic method of predation. Anglerfish typically have three long filaments sprouting from the middle of the head; these are the detached and modified three first spines of the anterior dorsal fin. In most anglerfish species, the longest filament is the first (the illicium). This first spine protrudes above the fish's eyes, and terminates in an irregular growth of flesh (the esca) at the tip of the spine. The spine is movable in all directions, and the esca can be wiggled so as to resemble a prey animal, and thus to act as bait to lure other predators close enough for the anglerfish to devour them whole. The jaws are triggered in automatic reflex by contact with the tentacle. Predator and Prey redirect here. ... ESCA - Electron spectrometry for chemical analysis, see XPS - X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy See also List of surface analysis methods ... For other uses, see Mimic (disambiguation). ...

Some deep sea anglerfish of the aphotic zone, may have bioluminescent esca (via bacterial symbiosis). The aphotic zone is the depth of the ocean that is not exposed to sunlight. ... Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism as the result of a chemical reaction during which chemical energy is converted to light energy. ... Phyla/Divisions Actinobacteria Aquificae Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi Chlamydiae/Verrucomicrobia Chloroflexi Chrysiogenetes Cyanobacteria Deferribacteres Deinococcus-Thermus Dictyoglomi Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria Firmicutes Fusobacteria Gemmatimonadetes Nitrospirae Omnibacteria Planctomycetes Proteobacteria Spirochaetes Thermodesulfobacteria Thermomicrobia Thermotogae Bacteria (singular, bacterium) are a major group of living organisms. ... For other uses, see Symbiosis (disambiguation). ...

In most species a wide mouth extends all around the anterior circumference of the head, and both jaws are armed with bands of long pointed teeth, which are inclined inwards, and can be depressed so as to offer no impediment to an object gliding towards the stomach, but to prevent its escape from the mouth. The anglerfish is able to distend both its jaw and its stomach (its bones are thin and flexible) to enormous size, allowing it to swallow prey up to twice as large as its entire body.

Some benthic (bottom-dwelling) forms have arm-like pectoral fins which the fish use to walk along the ocean floor. The pectoral and ventral fins are so articulated as to perform the functions of feet, enabling the fish to move, or rather to walk, on the bottom of the sea, where it generally hides itself in the sand or amongst seaweed. All around its head and also along the body the skin bears fringed appendages resembling short fronds of seaweed, a structure which, combined with the extraordinary faculty of assimilating the colour of the body to its surroundings, assists this fish greatly in concealing itself in places which it selects on account of the abundance of prey. Seagrass growing off the coast of the Florida Keys. ... Fish anatomy is primarily governed by the physical characteristics of water, which is much denser than air, holds a relatively small amount of dissolved oxygen, and absorbs light more than does air. ... This article is about protective camouflage used to disguise people, animals, or military targets. ...

Reproduction

Some anglerfishes of the superfamily Ceratiidae employ an unusual mating method. Since individuals are presumably locally rare and encounters doubly so, finding a mate is problematic. When scientists first started capturing ceratioid anglerfish, they noticed that all of the specimens were females. These individuals were a few inches in size and almost all of them had what appeared to be parasites attached to them. It turned out that these "parasites" were the remains of male ceratioids. Genera Ceratias Cryptopsaras See text for species. ... A parasite is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life in or on the living tissue of a host organism and which causes harm to the host without immediately killing it. ...

At birth, male ceratioids are already equipped with extremely well developed olfactory organs that detect scents in the water. When it is mature, the male's digestive system degenerates, making him incapable of feeding independently, which necessitates his quickly finding a female anglerfish or else dying. The sensitive olfactory organs help the male to detect the pheromones that signal the proximity of a female anglerfish. When he finds a female, he bites into her skin, and releases an enzyme that digests the skin of his mouth and her body, fusing the pair down to the blood-vessel level. The male then atrophies into nothing more than a pair of gonads, which release sperm in response to hormones in the female's bloodstream indicating egg release. This extreme sexual dimorphism ensures that, when the female is ready to spawn, she has a mate immediately available.^[2] The olfactory system is the sensory system used for olfaction. ... Digestion is the process whereby a biological entity processes a substance, in order to chemically convert the substance into nutrients. ... Fanning honeybee exposes Nasonov gland (white-at tip of abdomen) releasing pheromone to entice swarm into an empty hive A pheromone (from Greek φέρω phero to bear + ‘ορμόνη hormone) is a chemical that triggers a natural behavioral response in another member of the same species. ... Ribbon diagram of the enzyme TIM, surrounded by the space-filling model of the protein. ... A sex organ, or primary sexual characteristic, narrowly defined, is any of those parts of the body (which are not always bodily organs according to the strict definition) which are involved in sexual reproduction and constitute the reproductive system in an complex organism; namely: Male: penis (notably the glans penis... A spermatozoon or spermatozoan ( spermatozoa), from the ancient Greek σπέρμα (seed) and (living being) and more commonly known as a sperm cell, is the haploid cell that is the male gamete. ... Hormone is also the NATO reporting name for the Soviet/Russian Kamov Ka-25 military helicopter. ... A human ovum Sperm cells attempting to fertilize an ovum An ovum (plural ova) is a haploid female reproductive cell or gamete. ... Female (left) and male Common Pheasant, illustrating the dramatic difference in both color and size, between the sexes Sexual dimorphism is the systematic difference in form between individuals of different sex in the same species. ...

The spawn of the anglerfish of the genus Lophius consists of a thin sheet of transparent gelatinous material 2 or 3 feet wide and 25 to 30 feet long. The eggs in this sheet are in a single layer, each in its own little cavity. The spawn is free in the sea. The larvae are free-swimming and have the pelvic fins elongated into filaments. Such an egg sheet is rare in fishes. Species Lophius americanus Lophius budegassa Lophius gastrophysus Lophius litulon Lophius piscatorius Lophius vaillanti Lophius vomerinus Monkfish in natural envorinment Monkfish is the common name of a number of different species of fish. ...

Consumption

One family Lophiidae is of commercial interest with fisheries found in the in north-western Europe, eastern North America, Africa and the Far East. In Europe and North America, the tail meat of fish of the genus Lophius (known as goosefish (North America) or monkfish (British Isles)), is widely used in cooking and is often compared to lobster tail in taste and texture. Genera Lophiodes Lophiomus Lophius Sladenia See text for species. ... Species Lophius americanus Lophius budegassa Lophius gastrophysus Lophius litulon Lophius piscatorius Lophius vaillanti Lophius vomerinus Monkfish in natural envorinment Monkfish is the common name of a number of different species of fish. ... Subfamilies and Genera Neophoberinae Acanthacaris Thymopinae Nephropsis Nephropides Thymops Thymopsis Nephropinae Homarus Nephrops Homarinus Metanephrops Eunephrops Thymopides Clawed lobsters comprise a family (Nephropidae, sometimes also Homaridae) of large marine crustaceans. ...

In Asia, especially Japan, it is considered a delicacy. Each fish in Japan cost about US$150 in 1994, with the liver valued at US$100, mentioned by Yukio Hattori, the commentator for the Iron Chef program in the episode that featured this ingredient. Yukio Hattori (服部 幸應 Hattori Yukio, December 16, 1945 - ) is the fifth president of the Hattori Nutrition College. ... Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai With the above words begins each edition of Iron Chef, a Japanese television program produced by FujiTV. The original Japanese title is Ironmen of Cooking ). It began airing on October 10, 1993 as a half-hour show and after 23 episodes, it was expanded to a...

Threats

North-west European Lophius sp. are listed by the ICES as "outside safe biological limits".^[3] Species Lophius americanus Lophius budegassa Lophius gastrophysus Lophius litulon Lophius piscatorius Lophius vaillanti Lophius vomerinus Monkfish in natural envorinment Monkfish is the common name of a number of different species of fish. ... The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) was established in 1902 by eight northern European nations. ...

Classification

FishBase^[1] and Nelson^[4] list eighteen families, but ITIS^[5] lists only sixteen: FishBase is a comprehensive database of information about fish. ... Please note that the ITIS system URL has changed (25 September 2006). ...

• Suborder Antennarioidei
  • Antennariidae (frogfishes)
  • Brachionichthyidae (handfishes)
  • Lophichthyidae (Boschma's frogfish — monotypic)^[6]
  • Tetrabrachiidae (four-armed frogfish — monotypic)^[6]
• Suborder Lophioidei
  • Lophiidae (goosefishes)
• Suborder Ogcocephalioidei
  • Superfamily Ceratioidea
    • Caulophrynidae (fanfins)
    • Centrophrynidae (horned lantern fish — monotypic)
    • Ceratiidae (seadevils)
    • Diceratiidae (double anglers)
    • Gigantactinidae (whipnose anglers)
    • Himantolophidae (footballfishes)
    • Linophrynidae (leftvents)
    • Melanocetidae (black seadevils)
    • Neoceratiidae (toothed seadevil — monotypic)
    • Oneirodidae (dreamers)
    • Thaumatichthyidae (wolf-trap anglerfishes)
  • Superfamily Chaunacioidea
    • Chaunacidae (sea toads)
  • Superfamily Ogcocephalioidea
    • Ogcocephalidae (batfishes)

Genera Allenichthys Antennarius Antennatus Echinophryne Histiophryne Histrio Kuiterichthys Lophiocharon Nudiantennarius Phyllophryne Rhycherus Tathicarpus See text for species. ... Genera Allenichthys Antennarius Antennatus Echinophryne Histiophryne Histrio Kuiterichthys Lophiocharon Nudiantennarius Phyllophryne Rhycherus Tathicarpus See text for species. ... Species See text. ... The Handfish (Brachionichthys hirsutus) is a rare Australian fish from the family Brachionichthyidae. ... Genera Lophiodes Lophiomus Lophius Sladenia See text for species. ... Genera Lophiodes Lophiomus Lophius Sladenia See text for species. ... Species Lophius americanus Lophius budegassa Lophius gastrophysus Lophius litulon Lophius piscatorius Lophius vaillanti Lophius vomerinus Monkfish Monkfish is the common name of a number of different species of fish. ... Genera Caulophryne Robia See text for species. ... Genera Ceratias Cryptopsaras See text for species. ... Genera Bufoceratias Diceratias See text for species. ... Species Himantolophus albinares Himantolophus appelii Himantolophus azurlucens Himantolophus borealis Himantolophus brevirostris Himantolophus compressus Himantolophus cornifer Himantolophus crinitus Himantolophus danae Himantolophus groenlandicus Himantolophus macroceras Himantolophus macroceratoides Himantolophus mauli Himantolophus melanolophus Himantolophus multifurcatus Himantolophus nigricornis Himantolophus paucifilosus Himantolophus pseudoalbinares Himantolophus sagamius The footballfishes are a family (Himantolophidae) of globose, deep-sea ceratioid... Species Himantolophus albinares Himantolophus appelii Himantolophus azurlucens Himantolophus borealis Himantolophus brevirostris Himantolophus compressus Himantolophus cornifer Himantolophus crinitus Himantolophus danae Himantolophus groenlandicus Himantolophus macroceras Himantolophus macroceratoides Himantolophus mauli Himantolophus melanolophus Himantolophus multifurcatus Himantolophus nigricornis Himantolophus paucifilosus Himantolophus pseudoalbinares Himantolophus sagamius The footballfishes are a family (Himantolophidae) of globose, deep-sea ceratioid... Genera Acentrophryne Borophryne Haplophryne Linophryne Photocorynus Leftvents are small, deep-sea lophiiform fish comprising the family Linophrynidae. ... Genera Acentrophryne Borophryne Haplophryne Linophryne Photocorynus Leftvents are small, deep-sea lophiiform fish comprising the family Linophrynidae. ... Species Melanocetus eustalus Melanocetus johnsonii Melanocetus murrayi Melanocetus niger Melanocetus rossi Black seadevils are small, deep-sea lophiiform fish comprising the family Melanocetidae. ... Species See text. ... Genera Bertella Chaenophryne Chirophryne Ctenochirichthys Danaphryne Dolopichthys Leptacanthichthys Lophodolos Microlophichthys Oneirodes Pentherichthys Phyllorhinichthys Pietschichthys Puck Spiniphryne Tyrannophryne See text for species. ... Genera Lasiognathus Thaumatichthys See text for species. ... Genera Bathychaunax Chaunax See text for species. ... Genera Bathychaunax Chaunax See text for species. ... Genera Coelophrys Dibranchus Halicmetus Halieutaea Halieutichthys Halieutopsis Malthopsis Ogcocephalus Solocisquama Zalieutes See text for species. ...

References

FishBase is a comprehensive database of information about fish. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Fishes of the World by Joseph S. Nelson is a standard reference for fish systematics. ... The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) is a partnership designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy of biological species. ... is the 93rd day of the year (94th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Genera Allenichthys Antennarius Antennatus Echinophryne Histiophryne Histrio Kuiterichthys Lophiocharon Nudiantennarius Phyllophryne Rhycherus Tathicarpus See text for species. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Lophiiformes

• Tree of Life web project: Lophiiformes

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Encyclopædia Britannica, the eleventh edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...