CHAPTER XLVI 
ORDER PEDICULATI: THE ANGLERS 
md HE Angler-fishes.—The few remaining fishes possess also 
‘i jugular ventral fins, but in other regards they show so 
P| 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 
Batrachoidide 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 Batrachoidide. One species of Lophiide is 
recorded among the fossils, Lophius brachysomus, from the 
Eocene of Monte Bolca. No fossil Antennarittde are known. 
Fossil teeth from the Cretaceous of Patagonia are doubtfully 
named “ Lophtus patagonicus.”’ 
The Fishing-frogs: Lophiide.—In the most generalized family, 
that of the fishing-frogs (Lophiide), 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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