Family CALLORHINCHIDAE

Callorhinchidae

© Copyright Ros Poole.

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Introduction

Three species and one genus from the temperate latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere are currently recognised in the Callorhinchidae (Last and Stevens, 2009), but no direct comparisons of the forms on each southern continent have been made recently. One species occurs in Australia.

The elephant fishes or plownose chimaeras were briefly examined by Fowler (1941); there is no recent revision of the family. Didier (1995) treated relationships of the family.

Elephant fishes are bottom dwellers of the inshore and continental shelf. Their diet includes crabs, shrimps, shellfishes and small fishes. Unlike the other two families of chimaeras, elephant fishes have a broad, flexible snout process, a short-based second dorsal fin and a distinctly heterocercal tail. They attain up to 1.2 m in length. In New Zealand, they are of some commercial importance.

The recognition of Callorhinchus Lacépède, 1798 rather than Callorhynchus Meuschen, 1781 as the first valid use of the name (see below) requires re-examination of the spelling of the family name. Article 40 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature states the family name is not to be changed when the type genus is rejected as a junior synonym after 1960; Callorhynchus was rejected as an invalid name in 1954. As all the literature necessary to determine the first use of the family name is not available to us, we here, provisionally, follow Fowler (1941), Bigelow & Schroeder (1953) and Eschmeyer (1997) in using Callorhinchidae.

General References

Bigelow, H.B. & Schroeder, W.C. 1953. Chimaeroids. pp. 515-588, figs 118-127 in Parr, A.E. (ed.). Fishes of the western North Atlantic. Memoir. Sears Foundation of Marine Research 1(2): 1-599

Didier, D.A. 1995. Phylogenetic systematics of extant chimaeroid fishes (Holocephali, Chimaeroidei). American Museum Novitates 3119: 1-86

Eschmeyer, W.N. 1998. Catalog of Fishes. San Francisco : California Academy of Sciences 2905 pp., 3 vols.

Fowler, H.W. 1941. Contributions to the biology of the Philippine Archipelago and adjacent regions. The fishes of the groups Elasmobranchii, Holocephali, Isospondyli and Ostariophysi obtained by the United States Bureau of Fisheries Steamer Albatross in 1907 to 1910, chiefly in the Philippine Islands and adjacent seas. Bulletin of the United States National Museum 100(13): 1-879 figs 1-30

Last, P.R. & Stevens, J.D. 2009. Sharks and Rays of Australia. Collingwood : CSIRO Publishing Australia 2, 550 pp.

Common Name References

Last, P.R., Scott, E.O.G. & Talbot, F.H. 1983. Fishes of Tasmania. Hobart : Tasmanian Fisheries Development Authority 563 pp. figs. [167] (Elephant Fishes)

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