Maurolicus is an ocean

Ocean

An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...

ic ray-finned fish genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 which belongs in the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Sternoptychidae

Sternoptychidae

The marine hatchetfishes or deep-sea hatchetfishes as well as the related bottlelights, pearlsides and constellationfishes are small deep-sea bathypelagic ray-finned fish of the stomiiform 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

Argyripnus

Argyripnus is an oceanic ray-finned fish genus which belongs in the family Sternoptychidae. They are commonly known as bristle-mouth fishes, but that may also refer to the related bristlemouth family . A...

or the family Gonostomatidae

Gonostomatidae

Gonostomatidae is a family of deep-water marine fish, commonly named bristlemouths, lightfishes or anglemouths. It is a relatively small family, containing only eight known genera and 32 species...

.

Species

For long, only six species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 were placed in this genus, but taxonomic revisions in the 1990s established 9 new ones:

• 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 – Mueller's pearlside, Mueller's bristle-mouth fish
• Maurolicus parvipinnis Vaillant
  Léon Vaillant
  Léon Louis Vaillant was a French zoologist. He is most famous for his work in the areas of herpetology, malacology, and ichthyology...
  
  , 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

Fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

s of pearlsides are known from the Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

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