Fanfin

Taxobox
name = Fanfins

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image_width = 240px
image_caption = "Caulophryne" sp.
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Actinopterygii
ordo = Lophiiformes
familia = Caulophrynidae
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision = "Caulophryne" "Robia" See text for species.

Fanfins are a family, Caulophrynidae, of anglerfishes. They are found in deep, lightless waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. [FishBase family | family = Caulophrynidae | year = 2005 | month = February]

They are distinguished from other anglerfishes by the lack of the expanded escal bulb — the bioluminescent lure at the end of the illicium — and by the very long dorsal and anal fin rays.

As in other anglerfishes, males are very much smaller than the females and, after a larval and adolescent free-living stage, spend the rest of their life parasitically attached to a female. [cite web | url = http://tolweb.org/Caulophrynidae/22025 | title = Caulophrynidae | author = Theodore W. Pietsch | publisher = Tree of Life web project | year = 2005 | accessdate = 4 April | accessyear = 2006]

pecies

There are five species in two genera:
* Genus "Caulophryne"
** "Caulophryne jordani" (Fanfin seadevil) Goode & Bean, 1896.
** "Caulophryne pelagica" (Brauer, 1902).
** "Caulophryne pietschi" Balushkin & Fedorov, 1985.
** "Caulophryne polynema" (Hairy angler)Regan, 1930.
* Genus "Robia"
** "Robia legula" Pietsch, 1979.

References