Lepisosteiformes

Lepisosteiformes

[‚lep·ə‚säs·tē·ə′fȯr‚mēz]

(vertebrate zoology)

An equivalent name for Semionotiformes.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Lepisosteiformes

 

(formerly Lepidosteiformes), an order of freshwater fishes of the ganoid group. The fishes have a long, cylindrical body covered with an armor of strong, rhomboid ganoid scales. The olfactory sacs and the nostrils are located at the tip of the elongated snout. The spinal column is totally ossified. The vertebrae of Lepisosteiformes, unlike those of all other fishes, are opisthocoelous, that is, convex in front and concave behind.

Fossils of the order have been found in Europe in Cretaceous deposits and in North America and Asia (India) in Eocene deposits. Modern representatives comprise a single family, embracing the single genus Lepidosteus.

REFERENCES

Zhizn’ zhivotnykh, vol. 4, part 1. Moscow, 1971.
Nikol’skii, G. V. Chastnaia ikhtiologiia, 3rd ed. Moscow, 1971.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.