The Rockfishes
BODY oblong, more or less compressed, the head large, and with one or more pairs of ridges above, which usually terminate in spines; opercle usually with 2 spinous processes, preopercle with 4 or 5; mouth terminal, usually large, with villiform teeth on jaws and vomer; premaxillaries protractile; maxillary broad, without supplemental bone; gill-openings wide, extending forward below; gill-membranes separate, free from the isthmus; scales ctenoid or sometimes cycloid; lateral line continuous, concurrent with the back; a narrow bony stay extending backward from the suborbital toward the preopercle; dorsal fin continuous, sometimes very deeply notched; pseudobranchiae large; air-bladder usually present.