Sternoptychidae, Duméril, 1805
The marine hatchetfishes or deep-sea hatchetfishes as well as the related bottlelights, pearlsides and constellationfishes are small deep-sea ray-finned fish of the stomiiform family Sternoptychidae. They are not closely related to and should not be confused with the freshwater hatchetfishes, which are teleosts in the characiform family Gasteropelecidae. The Sternoptychidae have 10 genera and about 70 species altogether.
The scientific name means "Sternoptyx-family", from Sternoptyx (the type genus) + the standard animal family suffix "-idae". The type genus derives from Ancient Greek stérnon (στέρνον, "breast") + ptýx (πτύξ, "a fold/crease") + Latin forma ("external form"), the Greek part in reference to the thorax shape of marine hatchetfishes.
Found most often at depths of 200–600 meters in tropical, subtropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, marine hatchetfishes range in size from Polyipnus danae at 2.8 cm (1.1 in) to the c.12 cm (4.7 in)-long giant hatchetfish (Argyropelecus gigas).
The members of the disputed subfamily Maurolicinae have a more conventional fish shape. The mouth is located at the tip of the snout and directed downwards, more so in the Sternoptychinae.
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