The
flying gurnards are a
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus...
,
Dactylopteridae, of
marineAn ocean is a large body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 75% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
fishA fish is any aquatic vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins...
notable for their greatly enlarged pectoral fins. As they cannot literally fly, an alternative name preferred by some authors is
helmet gurnards. They are the only family in the suborder
Dactylopteroidei.
They have been observed to "walk" along sandy sea floors while looking for
crustaceanCrustaceans are a very large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles...
s and other small
invertebrateAn invertebrate is an animal without a vertebral column. The group includes 95% of all animal species — all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum Vertebrata ....
s by using their pelvic fins.
Discussion
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The
flying gurnards are a
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus...
,
Dactylopteridae, of
marineAn ocean is a large body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 75% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
fishA fish is any aquatic vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins...
notable for their greatly enlarged pectoral fins. As they cannot literally fly, an alternative name preferred by some authors is
helmet gurnards. They are the only family in the suborder
Dactylopteroidei.
They have been observed to "walk" along sandy sea floors while looking for
crustaceanCrustaceans are a very large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles...
s and other small
invertebrateAn invertebrate is an animal without a vertebral column. The group includes 95% of all animal species — all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum Vertebrata ....
s by using their pelvic fins. Like the true
gurnardGurnard can refer to:*The sea robin, a fish.*The flying gurnard, a fish.*Gurnard, Isle of Wight, a village on the Isle of Wight in England*A United States Navy nuclear fast attack submarine of the Sturgeon Class, with hull number SSN-662....
s, to which they may be related, they possess a swim bladder with two lobes and a "drumming muscle" that can beat against the swim bladder to produce sounds. They have heavy, protective, scales, and the undersides of their huge pectoral fins are brightly coloured, perhaps to startle predators.
Most species live in the
Indo-PacificThe Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of the earth's seas, comprising the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia...
, but at least one is native to the Atlantic. The adults live on the sea bottom, but many species have an extended
larvaA larva is a young form of animal with indirect development, going through or undergoing metamorphosis ....
l stage, which floats freely in the oceans.
Classification
The family is small, with seven species in two genera.
- Genus Dactyloptena
- Dactyloptena gilberti, Snyder, 1909
- Spotwing flying gurnard
The spotwing flying gurnard, Dactyloptena macracantha, is an unusual looking fish because of its huge pectoral fins. The fish has dark spots and wavy lines on the fins...
, Dactyloptena macracantha (Bleeker, 1854)
- Oriental flying gurnard
The oriental flying gurnard, Dactyloptena orientalis, is a flying gurnard of the family Dactylopteridae found in the Indo-Pacific Oceans at depths down to 100 m. Their length is up to 40 cm.The oriental flying gurnard has huge, round pectoral fins...
, Dactyloptena orientalis (Cuvier, 1829)
- Butterfly flying gurnard, Dactyloptena papilio Ogilby, 1910
- Starry flying gurnard, Dactyloptena peterseni (Nyström, 1887)
- Dactyloptena tiltoni, Eschmeyer, 1997
- Genus Dactylopterus
- Flying gurnard, Dactylopterus volitans
The flying gurnard, Dactylopterus volitans, is a fish of tropical to warm temperate waters on both sides of the Atlantic, found as far north as New Jersey and south as Brazil, and from the English Channel to Angola....
(Linnaeus, 1758)
External links