#taeniosomous

[marinebiologyshitposts]

FISH KIN: @lampriformity, your fish kin is...

Lampris guttatus, the Opah! Now, I do personally think it's cheating to assign you a lampriforme, because like. It is literally in your name, but I just couldn't resist this guy- and how could I? The Opah is a discoid pelagic ray-finned fish closely related to the Oarfish, probably one of the best-known Lampriformes! The Lampriformes shaped like the Opah are called "bathysomes", where the longer, slimmer ones are called "taeniosomes"- translating to "deep-bodied" and "ribbon-bodied" respectively! While the Opah is kinda an odd-man-out among the Lampriformes, given its unusual shape, the fossil record shows that MOST prehistoric Lampriformes were bathysomes- and it's only relatively recently that they started getting stretched longer! Thank you so much for your donation!