Biology:Phosichthyidae
Lightfishes are small stomiiform fishes in the family Phosichthyidae[1][2]
The earliest fossils of lightfishes are of the genera †Solterichthys Calzoni, Giusberti & Carnevale, 2025 from the Early Eocene of Italy and †Sytchevskia Prokofiev, 2002 from Middle Eocene-aged Tethyan marine strata in Georgia.[3][4][5]
They are very small fishes found in oceans throughout the world: most species grow no longer than 10 cm, while those in the genus Vinciguerria only reach 4 cm or so.
They make up for their small size with abundant numbers: Vinciguerria is thought — with the possible exception of Cyclothone — to be the most abundant genus of vertebrates. Deep-sea trawls of the Humboldt Current in the southeast Pacific have found that lightfishes make up 85% by mass of mesopelagic fishes, with Vinciguerria lucetia by far the most numerous species.[6]
They are bioluminescent fishes, possessing rows of photophores along their sides, with which they hunt planktonic invertebrates, especially krill, copepods, and planktonic amphipods.[7]
References
- ↑ Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). "Phosichthyidae" in FishBase. January 2006 version.
- ↑ "Phosichthyidae". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=622313. Retrieved 29 March 2006.
- ↑ Nazarkin, Mikhail V.; Nam, Gi-Soo (2022-01-02). "A Miocene lightfish Vinciguerria sp. (Stomiiformes: Phosichthyidae) from the North-West Pacific with notes on the recent evolution of the genus". Historical Biology 34 (1): 102–107. doi:10.1080/08912963.2021.1900839. ISSN 0891-2963. Bibcode: 2022HBio...34..102N.
- ↑ A.m, Prokofiev (2002). "THE PHOSICHTHYIDAE (PISCES: STOMIIFORMES) FROM THE EOCENE-MIOCENE OF RUSSIA AND ADJACENT AREAS". Paleontological Journal. ISSN 0031-0301. http://repository.geologyscience.ru/handle/123456789/29019.
- ↑ Calzoni, Pietro; Giusberti, Luca; Carnevale, Giorgio (2025-07-29). "THE YPRESIAN FISHES OF THE SOLTERI LAGERSTÄTTE (TRENTO, NORTHERN ITALY): A GLIMPSE INTO THE EARLY EOCENE TETHYAN MESOPELAGIC ASSEMBLAGES". Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 131 (2). doi:10.54103/2039-4942/28705. ISSN 2039-4942. Bibcode: 2025RIPS..13128705C.
- ↑ R. Cornejo, R. Koppelmann & T. Sutton. "Deep-sea fish diversity and ecology in the benthic boundary layer". https://abstractsearch.agu.org/meetings/2006/OS/OS45Q-01.html.
- ↑ Carmo, Vanda; Sutton, Tracey; Menezes, Gui; Falkenhaug, Tone; Bergstad, Odd Aksel (2015-01-01). "Feeding ecology of the Stomiiformes (Pisces) of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge. 1. The Sternoptychidae and Phosichthyidae" (in en). Progress in Oceanography 130: 172–187. doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2014.11.003. ISSN 0079-6611. Bibcode: 2015PrOce.130..172C. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079661114001785.
Wikidata ☰ Q1474948 entry
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