I\'ve discovered that MySQL has multiple row formats, and it\'s possible to specify this or change it. Also, the default ROW_FORMAT has apparently changed over time with MySQL
Information schema offers a wealth of information.
SELECT row_format FROM information_schema.tables
WHERE table_schema="YOUR DB" AND table_name="YOUR TABLE" LIMIT 1;
The following query will give you the row format of all tables in the current database:
SELECT `table_name`, `row_format`
FROM `information_schema`.`tables`
WHERE `table_schema`=DATABASE();