Bathydraconidae

The Bathydraconidae, or the Antarctic dragonfishes, are a family of marine ray-finned fishes, notothenioids belonging to the Perciform suborder Notothenioidei. The family comprises four genera. These fishes are endemic to deep waters off Antarctica. Bathydraconidae was first formally described as a family in 1913 by the English ichthyologist Charles Tate Regan in his report on the fishes collected on the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He used the genus Bathydraco, which had been described by Albert Gunther in 1878 as a monotypic genus with B. antarctica as its type species, as the type genus. Molecular analyses have supported the split of bathydraconids into three clades; Bathydraconinae which includes Bathydraco, Prionodraco and Racovitzia; Gymnodraconinae which includes Gymnodraco, Psilodraco and Acanthodraco); and Cygnodraconinae including Cygnodraco, Gerlachea and Parachaenichthys. However, this subdivision is not recognised in the 5th edition of Fishes of the World. The name of the family is derived from the generic name Bathydraco which is a combination of bathy meaning "deep" and draco meaning dragon, the type of B. antarctica was collected at and draco is a commonly used suffix for Notothenioids. The following genera are classified within the family Bathydraconidae: Acanthodraco Skóra, 1995 Akarotaxis DeWitt & Hureau, 1980 Bathydraco Günther, 1878 Cygnodraco Waite, 1916 Gerlachea Dollo, 1900 Gymnodraco Boulenger, 1902 Parachaenichthys Boulenger, 1902 Prionodraco Regan, 1914 Psilodraco Norman. 1937 Racovitzia Dollo, 1900 Vomeridens DeWitt & Hureau, 1980 Bathydraconidae species have elongate, slender bodies and may be separated from the other notothenioid families by the lack of a spiny first dorsal fin. Their bodies may be stocky, nearly cylindrical or rather depressed at the front and compressed at the rear. There is a single dorsal fin which has a long base and lacks any spines. The anal fin is typically shorter based than the dorsal fin, again having no spines.