{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T13:13:44Z","timestamp":1790169224694,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":13,"publisher":"The Royal Society","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2009,1,20]],"date-time":"2009-01-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1232409600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2009,1,20]],"date-time":"2009-01-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1232409600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["royalsocietypublishing.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Biol. Lett."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2009,4,23]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>The oceanic bathypelagic realm (1000\u20134000\u200am) is a nutrient-poor habitat. Most fishes living there have pelagic larvae using the rich waters of the upper 200\u200am. Morphological and behavioural specializations necessary to occupy such contrasting environments have resulted in remarkable developmental changes and life-history strategies. We resolve a long-standing biological and taxonomic conundrum by documenting the most extreme example of ontogenetic metamorphoses and sexual dimorphism in vertebrates. Based on morphology and mitogenomic sequence data, we show that fishes currently assigned to three families with greatly differing morphologies, Mirapinnidae (tapetails), Megalomycteridae (bignose fishes) and Cetomimidae (whalefishes), are larvae, males and females, respectively, of a single family Cetomimidae. Morphological transformations involve dramatic changes in the skeleton, most spectacularly in the head, and are correlated with distinctly different feeding mechanisms. Larvae have small, upturned mouths and gorge on copepods. Females have huge gapes with long, horizontal jaws and specialized gill arches allowing them to capture larger prey. Males cease feeding, lose their stomach and oesophagus, and apparently convert the energy from the bolus of copepods found in all transforming males to a massive liver that supports them throughout adult life.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1098\/rsbl.2008.0722","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2009,1,21]],"date-time":"2009-01-21T21:11:06Z","timestamp":1232572266000},"page":"235-239","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1098\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":82,"title":["Deep-sea mystery solved: astonishing larval transformations and extreme sexual dimorphism unite three fish families"],"prefix":"10.1098","volume":"5","author":[{"given":"G. David","family":"Johnson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Fishes, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian InstitutionWashington, DC 20560, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"John R","family":"Paxton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ichthyology, Australian MuseumSydney, New South Wales 2010, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tracey T","family":"Sutton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceGloucester Point, VA 23062, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Takashi P","family":"Satoh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Marine Bioscience, Ocean Research Institute, University of TokyoNakano-ku, Tokyo 164-8639, Japan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tetsuya","family":"Sado","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Zoology, Natural History Museum and InstituteChuo-ku, Chiba 266-8682, Japan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mutsumi","family":"Nishida","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Marine Bioscience, Ocean Research Institute, University of TokyoNakano-ku, Tokyo 164-8639, Japan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Masaki","family":"Miya","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Zoology, Natural History Museum and InstituteChuo-ku, Chiba 266-8682, Japan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"175","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2009,1,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_2_2_1","first-page":"1","article-title":"The Mirapinnati, a new order of fishes","volume":"42","author":"Bertelsen E","year":"1956","unstructured":"Bertelsen, E& Marshall, N.B. 1956 The Mirapinnati, a new order of fishes. Dana Rep. 42, 1\u201335.","journal-title":"Dana Rep"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3109\/10520297709116780"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_4_1","volume-title":"vol. 1","author":"Eschmeyer W.N","year":"1998","unstructured":"Eschmeyer, W.N Catalog of fishes. vol. 1 1998 San Francisco, CA:California Academy of Sciences http:\/\/research.calacademy.org\/research\/ichthyology\/catalog\/fishcatsearch.html."},{"key":"e_1_3_2_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5479\/si.00963801.17-1012.451"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gosline W.A Functional morphology and classification of teleostean fishes. 1971 Honolulu HI:University Press Hawaii.","DOI":"10.1515\/9780824885311"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_7_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/PL00011798"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_8_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S1055-7903(02)00332-9"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_9_1","first-page":"193","article-title":"Megalomycteridae, a previously unrecognized family of deep-sea cetomimiform fishes based on two new genera from the North Atlantic","volume":"8","author":"Myers G.S","year":"1966","unstructured":"Myers, G.S& Freihofer, W.C. 1966 Megalomycteridae, a previously unrecognized family of deep-sea cetomimiform fishes based on two new genera from the North Atlantic. Stanford Ichthyol. Bull. 8, 193\u2013206.","journal-title":"Stanford Ichthyol. Bull"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_10_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3853\/j.0067-1975.41.1989.141"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_11_1","unstructured":"Paxton J. R. 1999 Family Megalomycteridae bignose fishes. In The living marine resources of the Western Central Pacific (eds K. E. Carpenter & V. H. Niem). Rome Italy: FAO."},{"key":"e_1_3_2_12_1","first-page":"1089","volume-title":"Early stages of Atlantic fishes","author":"Paxton J.R","year":"2005","unstructured":"Paxton, J.R& Johnson, G.D Cetomimidae: Whalefishes; Mirapinnidae: tapetails & hairyfish; Megalomycteridae: bignose fishes. Early stages of Atlantic fishes & Richards, W.J. 2005pp. 1089\u20131102. Eds. Boca Raton, FL:CRC Press."},{"key":"e_1_3_2_13_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/1442567"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_14_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/bioinformatics\/btl446"}],"container-title":["Biology Letters"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1098\/rsbl.2008.0722","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1098\/rsbl.2008.0722","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1098\/rsbl.2008.0722","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,29]],"date-time":"2025-04-29T09:09:46Z","timestamp":1745917786000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/doi\/10.1098\/rsbl.2008.0722"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2009,1,20]]},"references-count":13,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2009,4,23]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1098\/rsbl.2008.0722"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1098\/rsbl.2008.0722","relation":{"has-review":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.3410\/f.1148018.605124","asserted-by":"object"}]},"ISSN":["1744-9561","1744-957X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1744-9561","type":"print"},{"value":"1744-957X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2009,1,20]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2008-12-02","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2009-01-05","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2009-01-20","order":3,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}]}}