. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . oral fins are large; the dorsal and anal arenot only multiradiate, but most of the rays greatly prolonged. Only 586 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. one species is known, Caulophryne jordani, found in the Atlanticnear the American coast (lat. 30° 27 N., long. 71° 15 W.) at adepth of 1,276 fathoms. THE GIGANTACTINIDS. The family of Gigantactinids is represented by a single known spe-cies, evidently related to the Ceratiids and, like them, destitute ofventrals, but with an elongated slender body. The dorsal, ana
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . oral fins are large; the dorsal and anal arenot only multiradiate, but most of the rays greatly prolonged. Only 586 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. one species is known, Caulophryne jordani, found in the Atlanticnear the American coast (lat. 30° 27 N., long. 71° 15 W.) at adepth of 1,276 fathoms. THE GIGANTACTINIDS. The family of Gigantactinids is represented by a single known spe-cies, evidently related to the Ceratiids and, like them, destitute ofventrals, but with an elongated slender body. The dorsal, anal, andcaudal fins are like those of the Ceratiids. The chief distinctivecharacter is the union of the spine or illicium with the snout and itsextension forward as a long rigid rod with a terminal complexlampas and esca. The mouth is cleft in a nearly horizontal branchial apertures are infra-axillary, as in the Ceratiids. The only species of Gigantactis yet found is the G. vanhoe^eni ofA. Brauer. Tavo specimens were dredged, one in the Indian Ocean, c -. Fig. 25.—The type of the family Gigantactinids (Oigantactis vanhoeffeni). After Brauer. west of the Chagos Archipelago, from a depth of about 900 fathoms(1,900 m.), and the other east of Zanzibar, from a depth of about1,200 fathoms (2,500 m.). They were of small size, ranging inlength from an inch and a quarter (3 cm.) to an inch and a half( cm), exclusive of the illicium; the latter in the largest specimenwas nearly as long as the rest of the fish ( cm.). The habits of this species must be modified in accordance with itsform and the extension forward of its fishing apparatus. The slen-der form, and especially the slender caudal peduncle and long deeplyemarginate caudal fin, indicate a swift fish and one less prone toremain near the bottom of the ocean than the other fish doubtless swims freely in the depths with its illicium di-rected forward, attracting the fishes and other organisms in
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