Opah relatives in the LRT

Recent housekeeping
on the ray-fin fish portion of the large reptile tree (LRT, 2223 taxa) is finally coming to a conclusion (let’s hope!). Today’s graphic (Fig 1) presents the large, disc-shaped opah (genus: Lampris) and a menagerie of equally odd close relatives. These include the surface sprinter, Exocoetus, the deep-sea flashlight fish, Anomalops, and the elephant-nosed Gnathonemus (Fig 1). The sole fossil taxon, Massamorichthys, is from the Paleocene.

Figure 1. Lampris, the opah, shown in two views, plus its many smaller relatives to scale. Presently the last common ancestor of Lampris and Seriola rivoliana is the tiny stickleback, Gasterosteus, the outgroup taxon, which in turn is basal to pipefish, oarfish and seahorses.