The gnomefishes form a small

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

, Scombropidae, consisting of three

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Exta ...

species of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

in the genus ''Scombrops''. They have two

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

s and are notable for scales covering the soft parts of the dorsal and

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

s. The eyes are large. The gnomefish, ''S. boops'', lives in deep rocky areas, down to 400 m. It can grow to 150 cm total length and 16 kg weight. ''S. gilberti'' occurs in the western Pacific including Japan. The Atlantic scombrops, ''S. oculatus'', is widely found in the subtropical western Atlantic, particularly the

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

and

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

area. It is a deepwater fish, caught by anglers between 200 and 610 m.

Species

The following species are classified within the genus ''Scombrops'': * '' Scombrops boops'' ( Houttuyn, 1782) * '' Scombrops gilberti'' (

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

& Snyder, 1901) * '' Scombrops oculatus'' ( Poey, 1860) The Scombropidae have been put forward as the

sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to the Pempheridae by some authorities.

References

Scombropidae Extant Eocene first appearances {{Acropomatiformes-stub