CHAPTER XXXI 

 ORDER PEDICULATI: THE ANGLERS 



HE Angler-fishes. The few remaining fishes possess also 

 jugular ventral fins, but in other regards they show so 

 many peculiarities of structure that we may well con- 

 sider them as forming a distinct order, Pediculati (pedicula, 

 a foot-stalk), although the relation of these forms to the 

 Batrachoididcz seems a very close one. 



The most salient character of the group is the reduction and 

 backward insertion of the gill-opening, which is behind the 

 pectoral fins, not in front of them as in all other fishes. The 

 hypocoracoid and hypercoracoid are much elongate and greatly 

 changed in form, so that the pectoral fin is borne on the end of a 

 sort of arm. The large ventrals are similarly more or less ex- 

 serted. The spinous dorsal is much reduced, the first spine 

 being modified to form a so-called fishing-rod, projecting over 

 the mouth with a fleshy pad, lure, or bait at its tip. The form 

 of the body varies much in the different families. The scales 

 are lost or changed to prickles and the whole aspect is very 

 singular, and in many cases distinctly frog-like. The species are 

 mostly tropical, some living in tide-pools and about coral reefs, 

 some on sandy shores, others in the oceanic abysses. 



The nearest allies of the Pediculates among normal fishes 

 are probably the Batrachoidida. One species of Lophiidcs is 

 recorded among the fossils, Lophius brachysomus, from the 

 Eocene of Monte Bolca. No fossil Antennariida are known. 

 Fossil teeth from the Cretaceous of Patagonia are doubtfully 

 named "Lophius patagonicus ." 



The Fishing-frogs: Lophiidae. In the most generalized family, 

 that of the fishing-frogs (Lophiidci), the body is very much 

 depressed, the head the largest part of it. The mouth is exces- 

 sively wide, with strong jaw-muscles, and strong sharp teeth. 



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