Phosichthyidae
Template:Short description Template:Automatic taxobox
Lightfishes are small stomiiform fishes in the family Phosichthyidae[1][2]
The earliest fossils of lightfishes are of the genus †Sytchevskia Prokofiev, 2002, known from Middle Eocene-aged Tethyan marine strata in Georgia.[3][4]
They are very small fishes found in oceans throughout the world: most species grow no longer than 10 cm, while those in the genus Vinciguerria only reach 4 cm or so.
They make up for their small size with abundant numbers: Vinciguerria is thought — with the possible exception of Cyclothone — to be the most abundant genus of vertebrates. Deep-sea trawls of the Humboldt Current in the southeast Pacific have found that lightfishes make up 85% by mass of mesopelagic fishes, with Vinciguerria lucetia by far the most numerous species.[5]
They are bioluminescent fishes, possessing rows of photophores along their sides, with which they hunt planktonic invertebrates, especially krill, copepods, and planktonic amphipods.[6]
References
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