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The Liparidae, commonly known as snailfish or seasnails,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Sea Snails. Family Liparidae )〕 are a family of scorpaeniform marine fishes. Widely distributed from the Arctic to Antarctic Oceans including the northern Pacific, the snailfish family contains about 30 genera and 410 species. They are closely related to the sculpins of the family Cottidae and the lumpfish of the family Cyclopteridae. Snailfish are sometimes included within the latter family. The snailfish family is poorly studied and few specifics are known. Their elongated, tadpole-like bodies are similar in profile to the rattails. Their heads are large with small eyes; their bodies are slender to deep, tapering to very small tails. The extensive dorsal and anal fins may merge or nearly merge with the tail fin. Snailfish are scaleless with a thin, loose gelatinous skin; some species, such as ''Acantholiparis opercularis'' have prickly spines, as well. Their teeth are small and simple with blunt cusps. The deep-sea species have prominent, well-developed sensory pores on the head, part of the animals' lateral line system. The pectoral fins are large and provide the snailfish with its primary means of locomotion although they are fragile. They are benthic fish with pelvic fins modified to form an adhesive disc; this nearly circular disc is absent in ''Paraliparis'' and ''Nectoliparis'' species. Snailfish range in size from ''Paraliparis australis'' at to ''Polypera simushirae'' at some in length. The latter species may reach a weight of , but most species are smaller. Snailfish are of no interest to commercial fisheries. ==Occurrence and habitat== The habitats chosen by snailfish are as widely variable as their size; they are found in both shallow intertidal zones and at depths of or more, in both cold and warm waters. The diminutive inquiline snailfish (''Liparis inquilinus'') of the northwestern Atlantic is known to live out its life inside the mantle cavity of the scallop ''Placopecten magellanicus''. ''Liparis tunicatus'' lives amongst the kelp forests of the Bering Strait and the estuary of the St. Lawrence River. The single species in genus ''Rhodichthys'' is endemic to the Norwegian Sea.〔Hogan, C.M. (2011): (''Norwegian Sea''. Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Saundry, P. & Cleveland, C.J. National Council for Science and the Environment. Washington DC )〕 Other species are found on muddy or silty bottoms of continental slopes. Snailfish are abundant in most (especially polar) waters and are highly resilient. In October 2008, a UK-Japan team discovered a shoal of ''Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis'' at a depth of in the Japan Trench. In December 2014, an unknown species of snailfish was spotted by a probe in the Mariana Trench at a depth of 8.143 km, breaking the previous record for the deepest living fish seen on video.〔http://www.schmidtocean.org/story/show/3584〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「snailfish」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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