Suborder Myxinoidei (Noun)
Meaning
Hagfishes as distinguished from lampreys.
Classification
Nouns denoting animals.
Examples
- The hagfishes belong to the suborder Myxinoidei, a group of eel-shaped fish with unique slime-producing abilities.
- Lampreys and hagfishes both have a primitive vertebrate skull, but only hagfishes in the suborder Myxinoidei lack vertebral bodies.
- Some biologists place hagfishes and lampreys together in a group called Cyclostomata, but most researchers agree that hagfishes belong in a distinct suborder Myxinoidei.
- Fossil evidence indicates that hagfishes of the suborder Myxinoidei evolved significantly earlier than the earliest lamprey species.
- Scientists differentiate hagfishes from lampreys primarily on the basis of skeletal anatomy and systematics within the suborder Myxinoidei.