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THE WRYMOUTHS. FAMILY CRYPTACANTHODIDAE


Table of Contents

The wrymouths, are slender, eel-like fishes, close relatives of the blennies but much larger. Like the blennies they have a long dorsal fin that is spiny, throughout its length, but the demarcation between dorsal, caudal, and anal fins is so vague that they can be described as practically continuous. They have no ventral fins, and their mouth is so strongly oblique that it is nearly vertical. Only three species are known, all North American, of which the Gulf of Maine harbors one.