Mirapinnidae

As miracle -finned fishes ( Mirapinnidae ) a family was rarely referred to only 3.5 to 5.5 inches long expectant marine fish which occur in tropical and subtropical areas of the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific. They knew only larvae and young fish that live in the epipelagic top 200 meters of the water column. The fish eat zooplankton, especially copepods. They were later identified as larvae of Walköpfe.

Features

The miracle -finned fishes were divided into two subfamilies, the monotypic Mirapinninae and Eutaeniophorinae. The body of the fish is scaleless, the Eutaeniophorinae is covered by small papillae of 0.05 mm length. In Mirapinna esau the papillae are hair-like, enlarged from 1 to 1.5 mm long outgrowths.

The eyes are small, but well developed. Head and mouth are medium in size; the mouth is not enough to behind the eyes, is inclined or nearly perpendicular. The teeth are small and are in a tight range on the premaxillary bone ( premaxilla ) and in several rows in the lower jaw. All other jaw, palate and pharyngeal bones are toothless. Ribs, light organs and lateral line are not available. The fish are transparent or black or brown in color.

The fins have no hard jets. Dorsal and anal fins are located far back on the body symmetrically opposite.

Fins formula: Dorsal 16-33, 14-29 anal fin, pectoral 13-24, Ventral 4-10

The larvae of Eutaeniophorinae have a ribbon-like tail attachment that can reach the eel-like elongated Eutaeniophorus festivus more than twice the body length. They were ahead of their own family, the band support ( Taeniophoridae ) is described.

System

In 2008, recognized the American ichthyologist John R. Paxton and G. David Johnson, that it must be at the Wunderflossern to the larvae of Walköpfe ( Cetomimidae ) act. For example, the larvae of Cetostoma regani were described as " Parataeniophorus gulosus ".