Tentative attempts to subdivide Scalpellum into groups and subgenera were begun by Pilsbry (1907) and Hoek (1907), ... [details]

Listed under Pelecypoda, together with Ostrea in Dautzenberg, 1923. [details]

Included in separate family Stiliferidae in several sources [details]

Circumtropical, especially around coral reefs; five species in the Atlantic, the remaining in the Pacific and ... [details]

Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Two dorsal fins, the first with 7-10 spines; the second with or without soine ... [details]

Colonial, hermatypic, mostly extant. Colonies have all growth forms known for hermatypic corals. Corallites ... [details]

Agariciidae have very fine tentacles which are seldom extended during the day (except for Pavona ... [details]

Distribution: all oceans. Upper lobe of caudal fin greatly elongate, caudal fin almost one-half of total length; ... [details]

Tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans. Body translucent, without coloration. Pelvic fins jugular. No pharyngeal sacs. ... [details]

Asia and Oceania, Indo-west Pacific Oceans. Dorsal fin usually with 7-8 spines and 7-11 soft rays; anal fin with ... [details]

Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Minute cycloid scales. Usually without pelvic fins, present in Embolichthys. ... [details]

Small and fragile brittlestars. Jaws always with a pair of apical papillae at the tip, and one or more papillae on ... [details]

A terminal filament of varying length arising from a small, bluntly rounded protuberance at the tip of the snout. ... [details]

Usually catadromous fishes in tropical and temperate waters, except eastern Pacific and south Atlantic. Eellike ... [details]

Centrodorsal cavity moderate to large; rosette not sunken below aboral surface of radial pentagon, its interradial ... [details]

Solitary, free-living, button-like and ahermatypic; septa have well-developed teeth, other skeletal elements reduced ... [details]

Distribution: Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Scaleless. No swim bladder. Dorsal fin continuous with anal ... [details]

Chiefly marine. Some in brackish water; in streams (tropical Pacific Islands). Distribution: Atlantic, Indian, and ... [details]

The family includes the largest of all cephalopods. Specimens occasionally are found moribund at the surface of the ... [details]

The argonauts or paper nautiluses (a misnamer, use of which must be discouraged) are very abundant in tropical to ... [details]

Chiefly marine; occasionally freshwater. Distribution: tropical and subtropical waters. Forked caudal fin. Adipose ... [details]

Only one living genus, Stylocoeniella, is included in this otherwise fossil family of colonial, hermatypic corals. ... [details]

All the members of this family inhabit fresh water, and are found all over the world except inpolar regions, but ... [details]

The right and bowhead whales are large and chunky, with heads that comprise up to one-third of their body length. ... [details]

This family contains the larges animals ever to live; all balaenopteroids have adult body lengths of over 7 m, but ... [details]

Distribution: Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Usually compressed body. Pelvic fins fused to one spine. First ... [details]

Tropical and temperate fishes of the surface layer ranging from open ocean to freshwater. Small scales. Without ... [details]

Indo-Pacifc from South Africa to Gulf of Aden, Japan, Hawaii and the Nasca Ridge off Peru. Body elongated and ... [details]

Chiefly tropical and subtropical marine; rare in fresh- and brackish water. Distribution: Indian, Atlantic and ... [details]

Distribution: tropical and temperate Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans. Both eyes on left side in most species. ... [details]

Distribution: Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Usually with scales. Swim bladder present. Opercle usually with ... [details]

Distribution: Indo-West Pacific. Dorsal fin having 10-15 slender spines; soft rays 8-22. Three spines in anal fin; ... [details]

Tropical, benthic. Distribution: Mainly Indo-West Pacific. Small gill opening on upper side of head. A strong ... [details]

Distribution: Indian and Pacific Oceans. Oval and strongly compressed body; papilose. Small mouth; terminal. Dorsal ... [details]

Chiefly marine; rarely brackish. Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Body generally compressed, although body shape ... [details]

This large family is usually divided into six sub-families, only one of which is hermatypic. The latter have ... [details]

Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific. Anterior five or six vertebrae elongate. Pelvic fins with one spine and four ... [details]

Distribution: All tropical and temperate seas, excepting most of mid-Indian and mid-Pacific. Adults with pelvic ... [details]

Distribution: Northeast Atlantic, Mediterranean, Indo-West Pacific down to New Zealand. Dorsal fin continuous with ... [details]

Atlantic (tropical to temperate), Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Highly compressed body. Larvae with the head region ... [details]

Distribution: Indo-Pacific. Large pelvic fins before pectorals. Small pectoral fins with an oblique base. Short ... [details]

Chiefly marine and brackish; occasionally freshwater. Distribution: Indian and tropical Pacific Oceans. Body ... [details]

Distribution: Southern Hemisphere (parts of Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans) and Northern Hemisphere (off ... [details]

Shell, head and flippers covered with horny lamellae (scutes); horny beak never W-shaped when viewed from the ... [details]

Suborder Ischnochitonina [details]

Distribution: Central and South America, Texas (1 species), West Indies, Africa, Madagascar, Syria, and coastal ... [details]

Distribution: tropical western and eastern Atlantic, Indian and Pacific (mainly Indo-Pacific). Dorsal fin with 10 ... [details]

Distribution: Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and Japan to Australia. Eyes on either side of the head. A single spine ... [details]

Sponges with anastomosing tubular construction <282>. [details]

Mainly temperate (about 4 species in tropical Indo-Pacific). Distribution: Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans. ... [details]

Massive domed or encrusting sponges. Microscleres spiral-shaped. Can burrow into dead coral <282>. [details]

Same characters as superfamily Comasteroidea. [details]

Distribution: Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean. Slender fishes with compressed head and body. The single dorsal ... [details]

Distribution: Indo-West Pacific from South Africa to Hawaii. Lower jaw fringed with a row of cirri. A knob ... [details]

Distribution: tropical and subtropical areas. Both eyes on left side of head; eyes very small with little interorbital ... [details]

Marine; benthic. Distribution: tropical Indo-Pacific and Atlantic. Head large and blunt, with the bones forming a ... [details]

Chiefly marine; also in brackish and freshwater. Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Side of head continuous with ... [details]

The family Delphinidae has been called a 'taxonomic trash basket', because many small to medium-sized odontocetes ... [details]

The genera in this family are solitary or colonial, mostly ahermatypic. Corallite walls are porous, usually ... [details]

Horny skin smooth, scuteless; carapace black with seven narrow longitudinal ridges, white dotted plastron with five ... [details]

Habitat: demersal, on rocky reefs from a few meters to beyond 20 m depth Distribution: Angola (Centrarchops), south ... [details]

Distribution: Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Well-developed sharp spines covering body. Jaws with 2 fused ... [details]

Indo-west Pacific and West Africa. Body deep and laterally compressed. Mouth markedly protractile. Spinal portion ... [details]

There is only 1 living species in the family Dugongidae. The other recent member, Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis ... [details]

Distribution: Atlantic, Indian and Pacific. Elongate body, with the head flattened and bearing a sucking disc ... [details]

Large (3-4 m), wide-ranging, deepwater sharks in cold-temperate to tropical seas. Circumglobal distribution on ... [details]

Chiefly tropical and subtropical. Distribution: Atlantic coast of the United States to Stewart Island, New Zealand. ... [details]

Chiefly marine; enter estuaries and freshwater, especially as juveniles. Distribution: tropical and subtropical ... [details]

Marine. Chiefly tropical to warm temperate in the Indo-Pacific, southern Pacific, eastern Atlantic, and Carribean ... [details]

Distribution: Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Schooling fishes, mostly of shallow coastal waters and estuaries ... [details]

Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific; Anal fin with 3 spines. Compressed laterally and deep-bodied. Mouth small; vomer or ... [details]

Atlantic (incl. Mediterranean) and Pacific Oceans. Differ from apogonids in having usually 25 vertebrae, more than ... [details]

Similar to Gorgonocephalidae, but lacking bands of hook-like spines on arms. [details]

It is the biggest family in terms of number of genera, and ranks next to the Acroporidae in number of species. All ... [details]

Ahermatypic, solitary, free-living corals with non-exsert septa, no paliform lobes and thin walls primarily ... [details]

Most reef fungiids are free-living . The polyps are among the largest of all corals. These solitary forms have a ... [details]

Usually found in very deep waters. Distribution: tropical and subtropical seas. Body elongate; compressed. Exposed ... [details]

Chiefly marine. In brackish water occasionally; rare in freshwater. Distribution: most tropical seas. Very ... [details]

Marine, all oceans. Small to large sharks with nasoral grooves, short to long barbels, small spiracles behind eyes. ... [details]

Distribution: Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean. Pelvic fins usually present and modified into a sucking disc. ... [details]

Chiefly marine and brackish, some species are catadromous. Distribution: mostly tropical and subtropical areas. ... [details]

Ophiurids in which the five arms are very branched. They have rings of little hook-like spines forming bands around ... [details]

Solitary, free-living or attached, and tubular. Walls are composed of epitheca with pores between septa. Septa are ... [details]

Distribution: Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. Dorsal fin with 9-14 spines; soft rays 11-26. Three spines in ... [details]

Common coastal tropical sharks from shallow water down to 100 m, limited to the eastern Atlantic and continental ... [details]

Distribution: Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. The lower jaw much longer than upper jaw. Short pectoral and ... [details]

Tropical western Pacific from Madagascar in the west to Japan, the Philippines and the Australian region in the ... [details]

A family of Comatulida with cirri bearing spines or other prominences on their more distal segments in the median ... [details]

This family is easily distinguished by large, anteriorly directed photophores over the surface of the mantle, head ... [details]

Tropical. Distribution: Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. A single spine in pelvic fin; soft rays 5-8 (mode ... [details]

Distribution: most tropical and subtropical waters. Premaxilla and nasal bones produced, forming a spear-like bill ... [details]

The pygmy and dwarf sperm whales are much smaller than the sperm whale, and share only a slight resemblance to the ... [details]

Distribution: Indo-Pacific, as far as Hawaii. Body elongate and usually scaleless. Tip of tongue with 2 lobes. ... [details]

Distribution: Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean. Usually found near shore. Some primarily algal feeders; others ... [details]

Distribution: Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Protrusible mouth. Snout elongated in the genus Gomphosus. Most ... [details]

Distribution: Indo-Pacific. Dorsal fins 2. Soft-rayed parts dorsal and anal fins covered with deciduous scales. ... [details]

Mainly marine; some species enter freshwater. Distribution: Indo-West Pacific; one species in the Mediterranean. ... [details]

Distribution: Tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific (only Lethrinus atlanticus occurs in the Atlantic, off West ... [details]

Marine, fresh- and brackish water. Distribution: most tropical seas. No teeth on vomer and palatine. Rounded ... [details]

Shape variable from short and stout to long and slender. Fins terminal or marginal, but always united posteriorly; ... [details]