Saccopharyngiformes - AccessScience from McGraw-Hill Education Page 1 of 2 Saccopharyngiformes Article by: Boschung, Herbert Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Publication year: 2014 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.802750 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.802750) Content • Bibliography • Additional Readings An order of teleost fishes in the subdivision Elopomorpha whose member taxa have a leptocephalous (elongated and flattened side to side) larval stage. Members of the order Saccopharyngiformes (see illustration) are the most aberrant and bizarre of all fishes, having lost a number of structures common to most fishes, including the symplectic bones, opercular bones, branchiostegal bones, scales, pelvic fins, ribs, pyloric caeca, and swim bladder. The caudal fin is absent or rudimentary, the gill opening is small and ventral, the dorsal and anal fins are long, and the jaw and hyomandibular bones are greatly elongated and attached to the neurocranium by only one condyle. Gulper eel (Saccopharynx ampullaceus). These fishes live at great depths in total darkness. They are adapted to take advantage of any prey (large or small) that comes their way. The enormous jaws and distensible gut allow them to capture and swallow prey that is much larger than themselves. http://www.accessscience.com/content/saccopharyngiformes/802750 8/20/2015 Saccopharyngiformes - AccessScience from McGraw-Hill Education Page 2 of 2 About 26 species in five genera and four families are known from the bathypelagic areas of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans. The four families are Cyematidae, Eurypharyngidae, Monognathidae, and Saccopharyngidae. See also: Eel (/content/eel/213500); Osteichthyes (/content/osteichthyes/478500); Teleostei (/content/teleostei/680400) Herbert Boschung Bibliography E. B. Böhlke, J. E. McCosker, and J. E. Böhlke (eds.), Orders Anguilliformes and Saccopharyngiformes, in Fishes of the Western North Atlantic, pt. 9, vol. 1, Sears Foundation for Marine Research (Yale University), New Haven, CT, 1989 M. R. S. Melo et al., The deep-sea Anguilliformes and Saccopharyngiformes (Teleostei: Elopomorpha) collected on the Brazilian continental slope, between 11° and 23° S, Zootaxa, 2234:1–20, 2009 J. S. Nelson, Fishes of the World, 4th ed., Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, 2006 Additional Readings S. Dufour, K. Rousseau, and B. G. Kapoor (eds.), Metamorphosis in Fish, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2012 G. Helfman et al., The Diversity of Fishes: Biology, Evolution, and Ecology, 2d ed., Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, West Sussex, UK, 2009 C. Ozaka et al., The aglomerular kidney of the deep-sea gulper eel Saccopharynx ampullaceus (Saccopharyngiformes, Saccopharyngidae), Ichthyol. Res., 58(4):297–301, 2011 DOI: 10.1007/s10228-011­ 0227-1 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10228-011-0227-1) http://www.accessscience.com/content/saccopharyngiformes/802750 8/20/2015 .