Definition of Term

Holocephali

(English) The subclass Holocephali (from Greek holos, entire, and kephalos, head), the living chimaeras and their numerous fossil relatives, a major subdivision of the class Chondrichthyes. The name is in reference to the fusion of the upper jaws or palatoquadrates to the skull in all living species and in many but not all fossils. The living holocephalans include three families in the order Chimaeriformes. The living species differ from elasmobranchs in having four pairs of gill openings covered by a soft gill cover and with a single pair of external gill openings, oral teeth fused and reduced to three pairs of ever-growing tooth plates, an erectile first dorsal fin with a spine and a long, low spineless second dorsal. (See also: FishBase, family, chimaeras)

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