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CYPRINODONTS

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 695 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CYPRINODONTS . In spite of their name, the small fishes called Cyprinodonts are in no way related to the Cyprinids, or See also:

carp See also:family, but are near See also:allies of the See also:pike, characterized by a See also:flat See also:head with protractile mouth beset with cardiform, villiform, or compressed, bi- or tri-cuspid See also:teeth, generally large scales, and the See also:absence of a well-See also:developed lateral See also:line. About two See also:hundred See also:species are known, mostly inhabitants of the fresh and brackish See also:waters of See also:America; only about See also:thirty are known from the old See also:world (See also:south See also:Europe, south See also:Asia, See also:China and See also:Japan, and See also:Africa). Several forms occur in the Oligocene and See also:Miocene beds of Europe. Many species are ovo-viviparous, and from their small See also:size and lively behaviour they are much appreciated as See also:aquarium fishes. In many species the sexes are dissimilar, the See also:female being larger and less brilliantly coloured, with smaller fins; the anal fin of the male may be modified into an intromittent See also:organ by means of which See also:internal fertilization takes See also:place, the ova developing in a sort of uterus. In the remarkable genus Anableps, from Central and South America, the strongly projecting eyes are divided by a See also:horizontal See also:band of the conjunctiva into an upper See also:part adapted for See also:vision in the See also:air, and a See also:lower for vision in the See also:water, and the See also:pupil is also divided into two parts by a constriction. The latest monograph of these fishes is by S. Garman in Mem. See also:Mus. Comp. Zool. xix.

(1895). The Amblyopsidae, which include the remarkable See also:

blind See also:cave fishes of See also:North America (See also:Mammoth cave and others), are nearly related to the Cyprinodontidae, and like many of them ovoviviparous. Chologaster, from the See also:lowland streams and swamps of the south See also:Atlantic states, has the eyes well developed and the See also:body is coloured. Amblyopsis and Typhlichthys, which are evidently derived from Chologaster, or from forms closely related to it, but living in See also:complete' darkness, have the eyes rudimentary and more or less concealed under the skin, and the body is colourless. See F. W. See also:Putnam, Amer. Nat. (1872), p. 6, and P. See also:Boston See also:Soc. xvii. (1875), p.

222; and C. H. Eigenmann, Archiv. See also:

fur Entwickelungsmechanik der Organismen, viii. (1899), P. 545. (G. A.

End of Article: CYPRINODONTS

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