English: Jellynose fishes; Tadpole fishes.
Name: from the type genus Ateleopus, derives from Ancient Greek atelēs + pous, meaning imperfect + foot.
Genera: 4; ± 12 species; 1 family. Ateleopodidae.
Region: Caribbean Sea, eastern Atlantic, the western and central Indopacific, Pacific coast of Central America.
Habitat: deep-water, bottom-dwelling, marine.
ZoologyRay-finned fish; skeletons are largely cartilage.
Form: heads are large; nose is bulbous nose; body elongated, tapers towards the tail.
Fins: pectoral and ventral fins are reduced; caudal fins are very small, merged with the long anal fin with 70 fin rays or more; pelvic fins have up to 10 rays in juveniles, reduced to a single elongated ray in adults; dorsal fins tend to be high, with a rather short base, with 3 to 9 to 13 rays, just behind the head, with seven branchiostegal rays.
Size: up to 2 m
TaxonomyAteleopodiformes are often placed in the Stenopterygii with their relatives
Stomiiformes. But their closest living relatives are among the
Protacanthopterygii, including Stenopterygii. Some treatments place the
Ateleopodiformes in their own monotypic superorder Ateleopodomorpha.
Ateleopodidae have also been placed in the
Lampriformes or
Myctophiformes, but the relationship is still not well resolved.
Families • Ateleopodidae: Ateleopus, Guentherus, Ijimaia, Parateleopus.