Family Merlucciidae 
rz Q J2 
rxUEo 
Sli 3 
Body moderately long, terete. Caudal peduncle distinct. 
Head long, depressed, pilpe like. Mouth terminal. Jaws and vomer 
furnished with strong teeth. No barbels at chin. Suborbitals moderate. 
Gill membranes not united. No pseudobranchiae, Branchiostegals 7. 
Single pyloric appendage. Scales small, deciduous. Dorsals 2, anterior 
short and posterior long. Anal single, long, like second dorsal. Second 
dorgal and anal more or less incised at margin behind middle, sometimes 
so deeply fins may appear divided. Caudal truncate or forked, rays procurrent 
forward on caudal peduncle. Ventrals subjugular. 
Fishes of the northern and southern hemispheres, ranging into 
deep water in the warmer seas of their distribution. They differ from 
the Godidae chiefly in structural characters of the skull and the absence 
of a mandibular barbel. 
Genus Merlucoius Rafinesque 
Meluccius RAFINESQUE, Car. Nuov. Anim. Sicil., p. 26, 1810. 
(Type Merluccius smiridus RAFINESQUE = Gadus merluccius 
LINNAEUS, monotypic.) 
Merlucius GILL, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1863, 
p. 244. (Type Gadus merluccius LINNAEUS.) 
