ABSTRACT
The highly diverse ‘lizardfishes’ are benthic or epibenthic carnivores of little economic importance in the western central North Atlantic (WCNA), but some are valuable in the commercial fisheries of Southeast Asia. They are circumglobal in tropical and subtropical seas and range in habitat from shallow estuaries to abyssal depths. Members of these two families are elongate and circular to ovoid in cross section, have spineless fins, abdominal pelvics, a fleshy adipose fin, and numerous slender, sharp teeth. Synchronous hermaphroditism is common and metamorphosis is gradual (Okiyama 1984).
