Order Summary for Saccopharyngiformes

  Main Ref
:
  Order
:
Saccopharyngiformes swallowers and gulpers
  Class
:
Teleostei
  Sister Order
:
Anguilliformes 85 M years
  Ref.
:
  First Fossil Record
:
middle Cretaceous
  Occurs in
:
Marine
Fresh
Brackish
  Remark
:
Highly aberrant fishes, lacking symplectic bone, opercular bones, branchiostegal rays, scales, pelvic fins, ribs, pyloric caeca, and swim bladder; caudal fin absent or rudimentary; gill openings ventral; dorsal and anal fins long; jaws and hyomandibular greatly elongate, attached to neurocranium by only one condyle; leptocephalous larvae deep-bodied with myomeres V-shaped and not W-shaped. Like anguilliforms, they may spawn once and die.
  Class etymology
:
Greek aktis = ray, thunderbolt, beam + Greek pterygion, diminutive of pteryx = wing, fin. Ref. 45335.
  Order etymology
:
Latin, saccus = sack + Greek, pharyngx = pharynx + Greek, morphe = shape (Ref. 45335).
  Families
:

Ref.
[ e.g. 9948]                       
Glossary
                    [ e.g. cephalopods]

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