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The Pikes

BODY long, slender, not elevated, more or less compressed posteriorly, broad anteriorly; head long, the snout long and depressed; mouth very large, its cleft forming about half length of head; lower jaw the longer; upper jaw not protractile; premaxillaries, vomer, and palatines with broad bands of strong cardi-form teeth which are more or less movable; lower jaw with strong teeth of different sizes; tongue with a band of small teeth; head naked above; cheeks and opercles more or less scaly; gill openings very wide; gill-membranes separate, free from the isthmus; branchiostigals 12 to 20; scales small; lateral line weak, obsolete in the young, better developed in the adult; pseudobranchiae glandular, hidden; air-bladder simple.