| Pearlsides Temporal range: Miocene to Present
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Mueller's pearlside, Maurolicus muelleri | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Stomiiformes |
| Family: | Sternoptychidae |
| Subfamily: | Maurolicinae |
| Genus: | Maurolicus Cocco, 1838 |
| Diversity | |
| 15 species | |
Maurolicus is an oceanic ray-finned fish genus which belongs in the marine hatchetfish family Sternoptychidae. They are commonly known as pearlsides, but the brilliant pearlside is the related Argyripnus iridescens. Occasionally, "bristle-mouth fishes" is used as a common name, but that usually refers to the genus Argyripnus or the family Gonostomatidae.
Fossils of pearlsides are known from the Miocene.1
Species
There are currently 15 recognized species in this genus:2
- Maurolicus amethystinopunctatus Cocco, 1838
- Maurolicus australis Hector, 1875 (pennant pearlside)
- Maurolicus breviculus Parin & Kobyliansky, 1993
- Maurolicus imperatorius Parin & Kobyliansky, 1993 (Emperor seamount lightfish)
- Maurolicus inventionis Parin & Kobyliansky, 1993
- Maurolicus japonicus Ishikawa, 1915 (North Pacific lightfish)
- Maurolicus javanicus Parin & Kobyliansky, 1993 (Javan pearlside)
- Maurolicus kornilovorum Parin & Kobyliansky, 1993
- Maurolicus mucronatus Klunzinger, 1871
- Maurolicus muelleri (J. F. Gmelin, 1789) (Silvery lightfish, Mueller's pearlside, Mueller's bristle-mouth fish)
- Maurolicus parvipinnis Vaillant, 1888
- Maurolicus rudjakovi Parin & Kobyliansky, 1993
- Maurolicus stehmanni Parin & Kobyliansky, 1996
- Maurolicus walvisensis Parin & Kobyliansky, 1993
- Maurolicus weitzmani Parin & Kobyliansky, 1993 (Atlantic pearlside, Weitzman's pearlside)
References
References
- Sepkoski, Jack (2002): [Maurolicus]. In: A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. Bulletins of American Paleontology 364: 560. HTML database excerpt
- Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Maurolicus". FishBase. February 2012 version.