156 ! 
Family SUDIDAE 
Body elongate, subeylindral to compressed. Snout ob¬ 
tusely rounded as seen from above. Eyes variably large to 
vestigeal or even absent. Maxillary expanded posteriorly, 
usually with single supramaxillary. Teeth in narrow bands, 
pointed, uniserial in Jaws, usually on palatines. Vomerine 
teeth when present in 2 well separated patches. No air 
bladder. Skeleton rather weakly ossified. Posttemporals 
nearly meet above supraoccipital. Dorsal short, variably 
premedian, median or postmedian. Pectoral lateral. Ventrals 
not widely separated. Sometimes fin rays extended. 
* 
Bathypelagic. As here defined this family includes a 
wide range of forms, some very aberrant as the remarkable 
eyeless Ipops , with modified luminous organs on top of the 
head. Bathypter d ls is remarkable for some of its greatly 
extended rays functioning as tactile organs, thus in a mea¬ 
sure compensating for their reduced eyes. 
