Order Anacanthini 
Rostral and orbital portion of cranium longer than hind part. 
Cranial cavity wide in front. Mouth terminal or inferior, more or less 
protractile. Teeth in jaws in bands or uniserial. Vomer, palatines 
and pterygoids with or without teeth. Gill openings wide, membranes 
usually free from isthmus. Gills 4, pectinate, with 4 gill slits. No 
pseudobranchiae. Lower pharyngeals separate. Supraoccipital well 
developed, horizontal and keel like behind, separates parietals. Skeleton 
ossified. Pectoral arch suspended from skull, symphysis only loosely 
joined by ligament. Vertebrae progressively smaller posteriorly. Air 
bladder, if present, without pneumatic duct. Body scaly, scales cycloid 
or ctenoid. Fins spineless, except first two dorsal rays of some 
Corypnaenoididae• Vertical fins very long. Caudal homocercal or absent, 
when present without expanded hypural, symmetrical and supported by neural 
and haemal spines of hind vertebrae and by basal bones similar to those 
supporting dorsal and anal rays. Vertrais below or before pectorals, rays 
1 to 9. 
A large group of marine fishes, the shore froms living mostly 
in the cold waters of northern seas. 
