Overview
The Beloniformes are an of five families of freshwater and marine ray-finned fish: the Adrianichthyidae (ricefish and medakas); Belonidae (needlefish); Exocoetidae (flyingfishes); Hemiramphidae (halfbeaks): and the Scomberesocidae (sauries).1] With the exception of the Adrianichthyidae, these are streamlined, medium-sized fishes that live close to the surface of the water feeding on algae, plankton, or smaller animals including other fishes. Most are marine, though a few needlefish and halfbeaks inhabit brackish and fresh waters.[2]
The order is sometimes divided up into two suborders, the Adrianichthyoidei and the Belonoidei. The Adrianichthyoidei contains only a single family, the Adrianichthyidae. Originally, the Adrianichthyidae were included in the Cyprinidontiformes and assumed to be closely related to the killifish, but a closer relationship to the beloniforms is indicated by various characteristics including the absence of the interhyal, resulting in the upper jaw being fixed or nonprotrusible. The Belonoidei may also be further subdivided into two superfamilies, the Scomberesocoidea and the Exocoetoidea. The Scomberesocoidea contains the Belonidae and Scomberesocidae, while the Exocoetoidea comprises the Exocoetidae and Hemiramphidae.[3] However, newer evidence finds that the flyingfishes are nested within the halfbeaks, and the needlefish and sauries are nested within the subfamily Zenarchopterinae of the family Hemiramphidae, which has been recognized as its own family. The sauries are also nested within the family Belonidae.[4]
The beloniforms display an interesting array of jaw morphologies. The basal condition in the order excluding the ricefishes is an elongated lower jaw in juveniles and adults as represented in halfbeaks. In the needlefish and sauries, both jaws are elongated in the adults; the juveniles of most species develop through a "halfbeak stage" before having both jaws elongated. The elongated lower jaw is lost in adults and is lost in most juveniles in the flyingfishes and some halfbeak genera.[4]
Photos
Taxonomy
The Order Beloniformes is further organized into finer groupings including:
- Family (7): Adrianichthyidae · Belonidae · Exocoetidae · Forficidae · Hemiramphidae · Hemirhamphidae · Scomberesocidae
- Species: ZipcodeZoo has pages for 744 species and subspecies in the Order Beloniformes.
Families
Adrianichthyidae
The ricefishes are a (Adrianichthyidae) of small ray-finned fish that are found in fresh and brackish waters from India to Japan and out into the Indo-Australian Archipelago, most notably Sulawesi. The common name of the group derives from the fact that many species are found in Japanese rice paddies. About 27 species, some extremely rare and endangered, and some 2-4 may already be extinct. [more]
Belonidae
Needlefish (family Belonidae) are piscivorous fishes primarily associated with very shallow marine habitats or the surface of the open sea. Some genera include species found in marine, , and freshwater environments (e.g., Strongylura) while a few genera are confined to freshwater rivers and streams, including Belonion, Potamorrhaphis, and Xenentodon. Needlefish closely resemble North American freshwater gars (family Lepisosteidae) in being elongate and having long, narrow jaws filled with sharp teeth, and some species of needlefish are referred to as gars or garfish despite being only distantly related to the true gars. In fact the name "garfish" was originally used for the needlefish Belone belone in Europe and only later applied to the North American fishes by European settlers during the 18th century. [more]
Exocoetidae
Exocoetidae aptly known as flying fish are a marine family comprising about 64 species grouped in seven to nine genera. Flying fish are found in all of the major oceans, particularly in the warm tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Their most striking feature is their pectoral fins, which are unusually large, and enable the fish to hide and escape from predators by leaping out of the water, taking short glided flights through air just above the water's surface. Their glides are typically around 50 m (160 ft), but they can use updrafts at the leading edge of waves to cover distances of at least 400 m (1,300 ft). [more]
Forficidae
Hemiramphidae
The halfbeaks ( Hemiramphidae) are a geographically widespread and numerically abundant family of epipelagic fish inhabiting warm waters around the world. The family Hemiramphidae is divided into two subfamilies, the primarily marine Hemiramphinae and the freshwater or estuarine Zenarchopterinae. The halfbeaks are named for their distinctive jaws, in which the lower jaws are significantly longer than the upper jaws. The halfbeaks are remarkable for showing an exceptionally wide range of reproductive modes. These include egg-laying, ovoviviparity, and true vivipary where the mother is connected to the developing embryos via a placenta-like structure. In some of the livebearing species, developing embryos are also known to exhibit oophagy or intrauterine cannibalism, where developing embryos feed on eggs or other embryos within the uterus. [more]
Hemirhamphidae
Scomberesocidae
Sauries are fish of the Scomberesocidae. There are two genera, each containing two species. The name Scomberesocidae is derived from the Greek, skombros = tunny/mackerel, and esox = nursery of salmon. [more]
At least 18 species and subspecies belong to the Family Scomberesocidae.
More info about the Family Scomberesocidae may be found here.
References
- ^ Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors.. "Order Summary for Beloniformes". FishBase. http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/OrdersSummary.cfm?order=Beloniformes. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
- ^ Helfman G., Collette B., & Facey D.: The Diversity of Fishes, Blackwell Publishing, pp 274-276, 1997, ISBN 0-86542-256-7
- ^ Nelson, Joseph S. (2006). Fishes of the World. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0-471-25031-7.
- ^ a b Lovejoy, N; Iranpour, M; Collette, B (2004). "Phylogeny and Jaw Ontogeny of Beloniform Fishes". Integrative and Comparative Biology 44: 366–377. doi:
Sources
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