Lampris guttatus, commonly known as the opah, cravo, moonfish, kingfish, and Jerusalem haddock, is a large, colorful, deep-bodied pelagic lampriform fish belonging to the family Lampridae, which comprises the genus Lampris.
Image: Lampris guttatus NOAA3
Image: Lampris guttatus X ray
Researchers examine an opah caught off California
Lampriformes is an order of ray-finned fish. Members are collectively called lamprids or lampriforms, and unite such open-ocean and partially deep-sea Teleostei as the crestfishes, oarfish, opahs, and ribbonfishes. A synonym for this order is Allotriognathi, while an often-seen, but apparently incorrect, spelling variant is Lampridiformes. They contain seven extant families which are generally small but highly distinct, and a mere 12 lampriform genera with some 20 species altogether are recognized. They are the only extant members of the superorder Lamprimorpha, which was formerly diverse throughout much of the Late Cretaceous.
Lampris guttatus on Faroese stamp FO 546 by Astrid Andreasen
Reconstruction of Analectis pala, the youngest-known member of the extinct bathysome Turkmenidae, which dates from the Late Oligocene
Giant oarfish, Regalecus glesne (Regalecidae), caught in 1996 off Coronado, California
Scalloped ribbonfish, Zu cristatus (Trachipteridae)