Caristiidae
Family of ray-finned fishes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Caristiidae, the manefishes, are a family of scombriform ray-finned fishes which today includes 19 extant species distributed in four genera.
| Caristiidae Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| |
| Platyberyx opalescens | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Scombriformes |
| Suborder: | Scombroidei |
| Family: | Caristiidae T. N. Gill & H. M. Smith, 1905[1] |
| Genera[2] | |
Taxonomy
The following genera are known:
- Caristius Gill & Smith, 1905
- Neocaristius Stevenson & Kenaley, 2011
- Paracaristius Trunov, Kukuev & Parin, 2006
- Platyberyx Zugmayer, 1911
In addition, the extinct genera Chalcidichthys and Absalomichthys are known from the Late Miocene of Southern California.
Biology
They are deep-sea marine fishes found in the mesopelagic zone that eat siphonophores.[3] An adult manefish is less than 25 cm in length and most of them are entirely black, which helps camouflage them from predators.[4]
