FOREWORD ....................................................... 11
PREFACE ........................................................ 13
ABSTRACT ....................................................... 17
RÉSUMÉ ......................................................... 18
EXTENDED ABSTRACT .............................................. 19
RÉSUMÉ DÉVELOPPÉ ............................................... 23
INTRODUCTION ................................................... 29
MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE ......................................... 41
SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT ............................................. 49
Institutional collections and their abbreviations ............ 49
Order Lampridiformes Goodrich, 1909 .......................... 50
Family Regalecidae Gill, 1885 ................................ 60
Genus Agrostichthys Phillips, 1924 ........................... 61
Genus Regalecus Ascanius, 1772 ............................... 63
Systematic characters ........................................ 69
Key to species of Regalecus .................................. 72
Regalecus glesne Ascanius, 1772 .............................. 72
Regalecus russellii (Cuvier, 1817) ........................... 90
Neotype designation for R. russellii ........................ 100
MORPHOLOGY .................................................... 105
Tail loss: autotomy ......................................... 105
Terminus .................................................... 110
Intermuscular septa ......................................... 110
Size ........................................................ 113
Coloration and color pattern ................................ 114
Tuberculation ............................................... 117
External fin supports ....................................... 117
Two dorsal fin crests ....................................... 117
Pectoral fins ............................................... 118
Pelvic fins ................................................. 120
Caudal fin .................................................. 122
Soft anatomy ................................................ 124
Viscera ..................................................... 124
BIOLOGY ...................................................... 125
Food habits .................................................. 125
Parasites ................................................... 127
Predators ................................................... 128
Vertical orientation ........................................ 130
Schooling? .................................................. 132
Mortality and stranding ..................................... 133
Longevity and growth rate ................................... 135
Palatability ................................................ 136
Fecundity ................................................... 137
LIFE HISTORY .................................................. 139
Eggs ........................................................ 145
Larvae ...................................................... 145
Juveniles ................................................... 147
Males and females ........................................... 149
Pairs versus isolated individuals ........................... 149
FOSSIL RECORD AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION ................... 153
BIOGEOGRAPHY .................................................. 161
Sea mounts .................................................. 162
Regalecus occurrences including strandings .................. 162
Scandinavia .............................................. 164
British Isles ............................................ 166
Mediterranean ............................................ 168
Western Europe ........................................... 169
Atlantic coast of North America .......................... 171
Gulf of Mexico ........................................... 172
Southwest Atlantic (Argentina, Brazil) ................... 175
Southeast Atlantic (southern Africa) ..................... 176
Pacific coast of the America ............................. 176
Australia ................................................ 180
New Zealand .............................................. 180
Northwest Pacific Ocean (Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan) .... 180
Indian Ocean (Tanzania, Iran, India, Indonesia) .......... 184
Noteworthy miscellaneous geographical occurrences
of oarfishes ............................................. 187
Erroneous or suspect reports and hoaxes involving
oarfishes ................................................ 188
Seasonality of Regalecus strandings ......................... 192
Spates of Regalecus strandings and other occurrences ........ 195
Populations ................................................. 197
DNA Sequences ............................................... 200
DISCUSSION .................................................... 205
CONCLUSION .................................................... 209
Regalecus studies of the future ............................. 212
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................... 215
REFERENCES .................................................... 225
APPENDIX: Catalog of Regalecus specimens identified
to species in museum collections .................... 235
Regalecus glesne ............................................ 235
Regalecus russellii ......................................... 251
Index ......................................................... 259
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