Library

Atheriniformes

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
McGraw-Hill Science & Technology Dictionary:

Atheriniformes

Top
Home > Library > Science > Sci-Tech Dictionary
(′ath·ə′rin·ə′för′mēz)

(vertebrate zoology) An order of actinopterygian fishes in the infraclass Teleostei, including flyingfishes, needlefishes, killifishes, silversides, and allied species.

McGraw-Hill Science & Technology Encyclopedia:

Atheriniformes

Top
Home > Library > Science > Sci-Tech Encyclopedia

An order of actinopterygian fishes that includes the flyingfishes, needlefishes, killifishes, silversides, and their allies. Atheriniform fishes date from the Upper Cretaceous. Modern forms are grouped in 3 suborders, 16 families, about 170 genera, and probably 700–800 species. They chiefly inhabit fresh, brackish, and oceanic surface waters of the tropics and subtropics, but some enter the temperate zones, both in fresh water and the sea. They are circumtropical in distribution, abounding in fresh waters of Africa and the Americas and in all warm seas. None lives in deep oceanic waters. Atheriniformes are mostly small, although some needlefishes reach 5 ft (1.5 m) or more in length; most have a single dorsal fin of soft rays, but the silversides have a short anterior spinous dorsal; the pectoral fin is placed high on the side; the pelvic fin, if present, is abdominal, subabdominal, or thoracic and has six (occasionally seven) or fewer rays, one of which may be a spine; scales are usually cycloid, sometimes ctenoid, and rarely absent. The most familiar families include flyingfishes (see illustration) and halfbeaks (Exocoetidae), the former with stiffened, elongated rays on the paired fins that permit gliding in air; killifishes (Cyprinodontidae); live-bearers (Poeciliidae), among them guppies, swordtails, platyfishes, mollies, and mosquito fishes; and silversides (Atherinidae), that abound on marine beaches and reefs. Viviparity is more frequent and better understood in Atheriniformes than in any other order of bony fishes, occurring in no fewer than eight families. See also Actinopterygii; Osteichthyes.

California flyingfish (<i>Cypselurus californicus</i>). (<i>After G. B. Goode, Fishery Industries of the U.S., 1884</i>)
California flyingfish (Cypselurus californicus). (After G. B. Goode, Fishery Industries of the U.S., 1884)

Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Atheriniformes

Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Silversides
Boeseman's rainbowfish, Melanotaenia boesemani, red variety
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Atheriniformes
Families

See text.

Atheriniformes, also known as the silversides, is an order of ray-finned fish that includes the Old World silversides and several less-familiar families, including the unusual Phallostethidae. They are found worldwide in tropical and temperate marine and freshwater environments.[1]

Contents

Description

Atheriniforms are generally elongate and silvery in colour, although exceptions do exist. They are typically small fish, with the largest being the jacksmelt, with a head-body length of 44 centimetres (17 in), and the smallest species, such as the Bangkok minnow, being only 2 centimetres (0.79 in) in adult length.[1]

Members of the order usually have two dorsal fins, the first with flexible spines, and an anal fin with one spine at the front. The lateral line is typically weak or absent.[2] Atheriniform larvae share several characteristics; the gut is unusually short, there is a single row of melanophores along the back, and the fin rays do not become evident until some time after hatching.[2] They scatter their eggs widely, with most species attaching them to aquatic plants.[1]

Taxonomy

Classification of the atheriniforms is uncertain, with the best evidence for monophyly in the larval characteristics mentioned below.[2] Their closest relatives are thought to be the Caprinodontiformes.[1]

Following Nelson (2006), the family Melanotaeniidae includes the subfamilies Bedotiinae, Melanotaeniinae, Pseudomugilinae, and Telmatherininae, to demonstrate their monophyly.[2] However, in a 2004 study, a different classification scheme classifies the families Bedotiidae, Melanotaeniidae, and Pseudomugilidae (also include Telmatherinine genera) in a suborder Melanotaenioidei.[3] Thus, the number of families in Atheriniformes varies from author to author.

Classification under Nelson, 2006:[2]

Order Atheriniformes

  • Suborder Atherinopsoidei
    • Family Atherinopsidae (Neotropical silversides)
      • Subfamily Atherinopsinae
        • Tribe Atherinopsini
        • Tribe Sorgentinini
      • Subfamily Menidiinae
        • Tribe Menidiini
        • Tribe Membradini
  • Suborder Atherinoidei

Timeline of genera


References

  1. ^ a b c d Allen, Gerald R. (1998). Paxton, J.R. & Eschmeyer, W.N.. ed. Encyclopedia of Fishes. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 153–156. ISBN 0-12-547665-5. 
  2. ^ a b c d e Nelson, Joseph S. (2006). Fishes of the World. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0-471-25031-7. 
  3. ^ Sparks, John S.; Smith, W. Leo (2004). "Phylogeny and biogeography of the Malagasy and Australasian rainbowfishes (Teleostei: Melanotaenioidei): Gondwanan vicariance and evolution in freshwater" (PDF). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 33 (3): 719–734. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2004.07.002. PMID 15522799. http://research.amnh.org/scicomp/pdfs/Sparks_Smith2004b.pdf. Retrieved 2009-06-22. 
Extant Actinopterygii orders by subclass
Chondrostei
Neopterygii

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

Copyrights:

Cite
McGraw-Hill Science & Technology Dictionary McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
Cite
McGraw-Hill Science & Technology Encyclopedia McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
Cite
Wikipedia on Answers.com This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Atheriniformes. Read more

Answer these

What is the common ancestor of Atheriniformes?
» more

Featured guides

» More

Mentioned in

Phallostethiformes (vertebrate zoology)
Phallostethidae (vertebrate zoology)
Atherinidae (vertebrate zoology)
Exocoetidae (vertebrate zoology)
Beloniformes (vertebrate zoology)
» More