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flying fish
The Exocoetidae are a family of marine fish in the order Beloniformes of class Actinopterygii. Fish of this family are known as flying fish. About 64 species are grouped in seven to nine genera. Flying fish can make powerful, self-propelled leaps out of water into air, where their long, wing-like fins enable gliding flight for considerable distances above the water's surface. This uncommon ability is a natural defense mechanism to evade predators.
The oldest known fossil of a flying or gliding fish, ''Potanichthys xingyiensis'', dates back to the Middle Triassic, 235–242 million years ago. However, this fossil is not related to modern flying fish, which evolved independently about 66 million years ago.〔(Oldest flying fish fossil found in China ) ''Nature'', News, 31 October 2012.〕〔Xu, Guang-Hui; Li-Jun Zhao, Ke-Qin Gao and Fei-Xiang Wu (2012) (A new stem-neopterygian fish from the Middle Triassic of China shows the earliest over-water gliding strategy of the vertebrates" ) ''Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences'', Published online before print October 31, 2012. 〕
== Etymology ==
The term Exocoetidae is not only the present scientific name for a genus of flying fish in this family, but also the general name in Latin for a flying fish. The suffix ''-idae'', common for indicating a family, follows the root of the Latin word ''ラテン語:exocoetus'', a transliteration of the Ancient Greek name . This means literally "sleeping outside", from "outside" and "bed", "resting place", so named as flying fish were believed to leave the water to sleep on the shore.〔Pliny's ''Natural History'', vol. IX, 19)〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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