Caulophryne

Caulophryne is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Caulophrynidae, the fanfins or hairy anglerfishes. These fishes are found throughout the non-polar oceans of the world. Caulophryne was first proposed as monospecific genus in 1896 by the American ichthyologists George Brown Goode and Tarleton Hoffman Bean when the described Caulophryne jordani. The holotype of C. jordani was collected from the Gulf Stream off Long Island, New York at 39°27'N, 71°15'W, Albatross station 2747 from a depth between 0 and 1,276 fathoms (0 and 7,656 ft; 0 and 2,334 m). Caulophryne and Robia are the two genera making up the family Caulophrynidae. The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies the Caulophrynidae within the suborder Ceratioidei of the order Lophiiformes, the anglerfishes. Caulophryne is a combination of caulis "stem", an allusion to the stem-like base of the illicium, and phryne "toad", a suffix commonly used in the names of anglerfish genera. Its use may date as far back as Aristotle and Cicero, who referred to anglerfishes as "fishing-frogs" and "sea-frogs", respectively, possibly because of a physical resemblance. Caulophryne currently has four recognized species classified within it: Caulophryne fanfins have a high degree of sexual dimorphism, akin to other anglerfish. The females have short, round bodies with large mouths.