Holocephali

The subclass Holocephali ("complete heads") is a taxon of cartilaginous fish, of which the order Chimaeriformes is the only surviving group.

Holocephali has an extensive fossil record that starts during the Devonian period. However, most fossils are teeth, and the body forms of numerous species are not known, or at best, poorly understood. Some experts further group the orders Petalodontiformes, Iniopterygiformes, and Eugeneodontida into the taxon "Paraselachimorpha," and treat it as a sister group to Chimaeriformes. However, as almost all members of Paraselachimorpha are poorly understood, most experts suspect this taxon to be either paraphyletic or a wastebasket taxon. It include the rat fishes (e.g., Chimaera), rabbit-fishes (e.g., Hydrolagus) & elephant-fishes (callorhynchus). They preserve today some features of elasmobranch life in Paleaozoic times, though in other respects they are aberrant.They live close to the bottom and feed on molluscs and other invertebrates. The tail is long and thin and they move by sweeping movements of the large pectoral fins. there is an erectile spine in front of the dorsal fin, sometimes poisonous. there is no stomach and the mouth is a small aperture surrounded by lips, giving the head a parrot-like appearance.