Whipnose angler

Whipnose anglers

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Lophiiformes
Family:	Gigantactinidae
Genera
Gigantactis Rhynchactis

The Whipnose anglers, Gigantactinidae, are a family of deep-sea anglerfishes. The family name is derived from the Greek words "gigas", meaning "big", and "aktis", meaning "ray". They are distinguished by the presence of a remarkably long lure (the illicium), which may be longer than the body of the fish.^[1]^[2]

Species

The family contains 23 species, grouped into two genera:

Family Gigantactinidae

Genus Gigantactis
- Gigantactis balushkini
- Gigantactis elsmani
- Gigantactis gargantua
- Gigantactis gibbsi
- Gigantactis golovani
- Gigantactis gracilicauda
- Gigantactis herwigi
- Gigantactis ios
- Gigantactis kreffti
- Gigantactis longicauda
- Gigantactis longicirra
- Gigantactis macronema
- Gigantactis meadi
- Gigantactis microdontis
- Gigantactis microphthalmus
- Gigantactis paxtoni - Paxton's whipnose
- Gigantactis perlatus
- Gigantactis savagei
- Gigantactis vanhoeffeni
- Gigantactis watermani
Genus Rhynchactis

References

^ Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2008). "Gigantactinidae" in FishBase. September 2008 version.
^ Bertelsen, E.; Pietsch, Theodore W. (2002). "New Species of Deep-Sea Anglerfish of the Genus Gigantactis (Lophiiformes: Gigantactinidae) from the Western North Atlantic Ocean". Copeia (American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists) (4): 958–961. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1448514.