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beardfish
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beardfish Illustrated comparison of body shapes for various fish: a dark anglerfish with a bioluminescent lure, a round pancake batfish, a flat sargassum fish, a slender Eastern cleaner-clingfish, a dark deep-sea angler, a silvery beardfish, and a pale Southern cave fish. Each fish is labeled with its common and scientific name, representing different orders within Paracanthopterygii.
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beardfish
beardfish Beardfish (Polymixia berndti).

beardfish

fish
Also known as: Polymixia
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beardfish, any of the five species of fishes in the genus Polymixia constituting the family Polymixiidae (order Polymixiiformes). Beardfishes are restricted primarily to deep-sea marine habitats in tropical and temperate regions of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They generally are found at depths from about 200 to 600 metres (650 to 2,000 feet). The term beardfish comes from the beardlike appearance of two enlarged barbels that extend downward from the chin region. Beardfishes are not particularly large; the widely distributed stout beardfish (P. nobilis) attains a length of less than 20 centimetres (8 inches).

This article was most recently revised and updated by Richard Pallardy.