Antigoniinae

Antigoniinae is a subfamily of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Caproidae, the boarfishes. These fishes are found in the warmer oceans throughout the world.

Taxonomy
Antigoniinae was first named as a taxonomic grouping in 1898 by the American ichthyologists David Starr Jordan and Barton Warren Evermann. The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies Antigoniinae as a subfamily of the Caproidae, within the order Caproiformes, as do other authorities. However, other authorities classify this taxon as a family, the Antigoniidae, and classify and the Caproidae in the order Acanthuriformes.

Genera
Antigoniinae contains one extant and two extinct genera:


 * Antigonia Lowe, 1843
 * †Proantigonia Kramberger, 1882
 * †Eoantigonia Baciu, Bannikov & Tyler, 2005

Characteristics
Antigoniinae boarfishes are predominantly red in colour and have very deep, compressed, rhomboid shapwed bodies. Most of the scales on the body are clearly ridged, the ridge being high and curved on the rear of the scales. There are 8 or 9 spines in the dorsal fin and between 26 and 38 soft rays while the anal fin is supported by 3 spines which are separate from the soft rays in the fin. The caudal fin contains 10 branched rays. The maxillary process of the palatine is articulated with the forward end of the nasal bone. The largest species is the deepbody boarfish (Antigonia capros) with a maximum published total length of 30.5 cm while the smallest is Antigonia kenyae at 4.4 cm.

Distribution and habitat
Antigoniinae boarfishes are found at depths between 50 and 600 m.

Fossil record
Antigoniinae boarfishes include two fossil taxa Proantigoniafrom the Oligocene and Miocene of Russia and Europe and Eoantigonia from the Middle Eocene of Italy.