Lampreys: Class Cephalaspidomorphi

Lamprey are by far some of the most primitive fish, along with hagfish.  They are called cyclostomes, meaning 'round mouths' which refers to their lack of jaws.  Instead of jaws, lamprey have round sucker mouths.  Sea lampreys also lack bone.  Instead they have a skeleton of cartilage. 

Anadromous Fishes

Just like Salmon and Alewives, the Lamprey are fish that swim into freshwater to breed.  There are lampreys though, that never migrate to the ocean.  

Diversity

There are about 40 different species of lampreys in the following 9 genera:

• Genus Caspiomyzon
• • Caspiomyzon wagneri (Kessler, 1870)
• Genus Eudontomyzon
  • Eudontomyzon danfordi (Regan, 1911)
  • Eudontomyzon hellenicus (Vladykov, Renaud, Kott and Economidis, 1982)
  • Eudontomyzon mariae (Berg, 1931)
  • Eudontomyzon morii (Berg, 1931)
  • Eudontomyzon stankokaramani (Karaman, 1974)
  • Eudontomyzon vladykovi (Oliva and Zanandrea, 1959)
• Genus Geotria
  • • Pouched lamprey, Geotria australis (Gray,1851)
    • Genus Ichthyomyzon
      • Ichthyomyzon bdellium (Jordan, 1885) - Ohio lamprey
      • Ichthyomyzon castaneus Girard, 1858 - chestnut lamprey
      • Ichthyomyzon fossor (Reighard and Cummins, 1916) - northern brook lamprey
      • Ichthyomyzon gagei (Hubbs and Trautman, 1937) - southern brook lamprey
      • Ichthyomyzon greeleyi (Hubbs and Trautman, 1937) - mountain brook lamprey
      • Ichthyomyzon unicuspis (Hubbs and Trautman, 1937) - silver lamprey
    • Genus Lampetra
      • Lampetra aepyptera (Abbott, 1860) - least brook lamprey
      • Lampetra alaskensis (Vladykov and Kott, 1978)
      • Lampetra appendix (DeKay, 1842) - American brook lamprey
      • Lampetra ayresii (Günther, 1870)
      • Lampetra fluviatilis (Linnaeus, 1758)
      • Lampetra hubbsi (Vladykov and Kott, 1976) - Kern brook lamprey
      • Lampetra lamottei (Lesueur, 1827)
      • Lampetra lanceolata (Kux and Steiner, 1972)
      • Lampetra lethophaga (Hubbs, 1971) - Pit-Klamath brook lamprey
      • Lampetra macrostoma (Beamish, 1982) - Vancouver lamprey
      • Lampetra minima (Bond and Kan, 1973) - Miller Lake lamprey
      • Lampetra planeri (Bloch, 1784)
      • Lampetra richardsoni (Vladykov and Follett, 1965) - western brook lamprey
      • Lampetra similis (Vladykov and Kott, 1979) - Klamath lamprey
      • Lampetra tridentata (Richardson, 1836) - Pacific lamprey
    • Genus Lethenteron
      • Lethenteron camtschaticum (Tilesius, 1811)
      • Lethenteron japonicum (Martens, 1868)
      • Lethenteron kessleri (Anikin, 1905)
      • Lethenteron matsubarai (Vladykov and Kott, 1978)
      • Lethenteron reissneri (Dybowski, 1869)
      • Lethenteron zanandreai (Vladykov, 1955)
• Genus Mordacia
  • • Mordacia lapicida (Gray, 1851)
    • Mordacia mordax (Richardson, 1846)
    • Mordacia praecox (Potter, 1968)
• Genus Petromyzon
  • • Petromyzon marinus (Linnaeus, 1758) - sea lamprey
  • Genus Tetrapleurodon
    • Tetrapleurodon geminis (Alvarez, 1964)
    • Tetrapleurodon spadiceus (Bean, 1887)