FFamily EVERMANNELLIDAE Fowler 1901 (Sabertooth Fishes)

Updated 31 March 2025
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Coccorella Roule 1929ella (L.), diminutive connoting endearment: named for Italian naturalist-pharmacist Anastasio Cocco (1799–1854), who proposed the genus Odontostomus in 1838 (preoccupied in Mollusca, replaced by Evermannella)

Coccorella atlantica (Parr 1928) -ica (L.), belonging to: Atlantic Ocean, described as an Atlantic subspecies of the Pacific C. atrata (but now known to occur in subtropical and temperate seas worldwide)

Coccorella atrata (Alcock 1894) Latin for dressed in black, referring to its “jet black” color in spirits

Evermannella Fowler 1901ella (L.), diminutive connoting endearment: in honor of the “distinguished” ichthyologist Barton Warren Evermann (1853–1932), United States Fish Commission, and joint author of the “monumental” four-volume Fishes of North and Middle America (1896–1990) [replacement name for Odontostomus Cocco 1838, preoccupied in Mollusca]

Evermannella ahlstromi Johnson & Glodek 1975 in honor of ichthyologist Elbert H. Ahlstrom (1910–1979), Southwest Fisheries Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, for many contributions to the study of pelagic fishes and pelagic fish larvae, particularly from the eastern Pacific area

Evermannella balbo (Risso 1820) etymology not explained but, based on numerous mentions in the same volume, almost certainly named in honor of Prospero Balbo (1762–1837), Italian intellectual, politician and president of the Turin Academy of Sciences [presumably a noun in apposition, without the genitive “i”]

Evermannella indica Brauer 1906ica (L.), belonging to: Indian Ocean, North of Cocos Islands, Seychelles, type locality

Evermannella megalops Johnson & Glodek 1975 mégas (Gr. μέγας), big; ṓps (Gr. ὦψ), eye, referring to its extremely large tubular eyes, unique among known evermannellids

Evermannella melanoderma Parr 1928 mélanos (Gr. μέλανος), genitive of mélas (μέλας), black; dérma (Gr. δέρμα), skin, proposed as a dark-skinned subspecies of the light-skinned E. indica

Odontostomops Fowler 1934 Odontostomus, original name of Evermannella, from odontos, Latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, and stomus, from stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, referring to their large teeth; ṓps (Gr. ὦψ), eye, referring to “normal” eye of O. normalops compared with elliptical and semi-telescopic eyes of presumed congeners in Evermannella

Odontostomops normalops (Parr 1928) normalis, Latin for normal or according to rule; ṓps (Gr. ὦψ), eye, referring to having “perfectly normal, lateral eyes” compared with elliptical and semi-telescopic eyes of other species in Evermannella, its presumed genus at the time