Dentatherina merceri
| Dentatherina merceri | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
| Dentatherinidae | ||||||||||||
| Patten & Ivantsoff , 1983 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Dentatherina | ||||||||||||
| Patten & Ivantsoff, 1983 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Dentatherina merceri | ||||||||||||
| Patten & Ivantsoff, 1983 |
Dentatherina merceri is a small marine fish found from the Philippines via the Moluccas and New Guinea to the Trobriand Islands and the coast of northeastern Australia.
features
Dentatherina merceri is slender and reaches a length of 5 cm. Two dorsal fins are clearly separated, with 8 to 12 dorsal scales between them. The first dorsal fin is supported by 5 to 8 rays, the second by 12 to 14 soft rays. The anal fin, which is symmetrically opposite the second dorsal fin, is supported by a fin spine and 14 to 16 soft rays. The tail fin stalk is very slender. There are 40 to 43 scales in a middle longitudinal row, 7 to 9 in a transverse row. The number of Branchiostegal rays is 5.
The parasphenoid has large lateral growths that reach under the eye sockets. The maxillary has a spade-shaped extension at the front, the premaxillary (intermaxillary bone) has a downward-pointing process. A lip-side band in front of the teeth along the half of the premaxillary forms a cylindrical pouch, which extends just below the edge of the intermaxillary to the ramus of the dentary .
Way of life
It lives neritically in the well-lit shallow water zones around islands and over coral reefs . Apart from the larval development, the biology of the species is largely unknown. It is likely an important source of food for larger species.
Systematics
Dentatherina merceri is the only species of the genus Dentatherina and the subfamily Dentatherininae. It was initially assigned to the Old World earfish (Atherinidae) by the authors of the first description , but then recognized as a sister species of the throat phallus fish (Phallostethidae). Fishbase now assigns the species to its own family, the Dentatherinidae, Joseph S. Nelson , author of the standard work Fishes of the World , places the subfamily Dentatherininae in the Phallostethidae and thus makes the throat phallus fish, now Phallostethinae, a subfamily of the Phallostethidae.
literature
- Joseph S. Nelson : Fishes of the World . John Wiley & Sons, 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7
- JM Patten & W. Ivantsoff 1983: A New Genus and Species of Atherinid fish, Dentatherina merceri. Yep J. Ichthyol. 29 (4): 329-339. PDF
Web links
- Dentatherina merceri on Fishbase.org (English)