Dog fish
| Dog fish | ||||||||||||
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Hungarian dogfish ( Umbra krameri ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
| Umbridae | ||||||||||||
| Kramer in Scopoli , 1777 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| umbra | ||||||||||||
| Kramer in Scopoli, 1777 |
The dogfish ( umbra ) are small relatives of the pike ( Esox in the family Esocidae). Her body is more compact than that of her larger relatives. The head and trunk are covered by large round scales. The caudal fin is rounded. The 8 to 33 centimeters long fish feed on small invertebrates such as insects , crustaceans and molluscs .
They have a dispersed range and live in North America in the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River areas and in rivers that flow from the Appalachian Mountains into the Atlantic. With the Hungarian dogfish ( Umbra krameri ) there is also a representative in Europe. It occurs in the area of the Danube , from Vienna to the mouth, and the Dniester . The preferred biotope of the dogfish consists of small, heavily weed waters. They breathe atmospheric air with their swim bladders . The gill breathing cannot meet its oxygen requirements even in oxygen-rich waters. Dogfish lay their spawn between aquatic plants and roots. The clutch is guarded by the male.
Dogfish have very different numbers of chromosomes (22–78).
Fin formula : dorsal 13–17, anal 7–10, pectoral 11–16, ventral 5–7
Fossils are known to dogfish from the lower Eocene of Europe and the Oligocene of North America. With Umbra perpusilla from the Miocene of Öhningen in Württemberg they also occurred in Germany. If Dallia and Novumbra are also included in the Umbridae, this family is likely to become paraphyletic .
species
- Hungarian dogfish ( Umbra krameri Walbaum, 1792)
- American dogfish ( Umbra limi (Kirtland, 1840))
- Small dogfish ( Umbra pygmaea (DeKay, 1842)), introduced into northern Germany from the eastern USA.
literature
- Joseph S. Nelson : Fishes of the World. 4th edition. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken NJ 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Albert Frickhinger: Fossil Atlas of Fishes. Mergus, Verlag für Natur- und Heimtierkunde Baensch, Melle 1999, ISBN 3-88244-018-X .
- ^ J. Andrés López, Wei-Jen Chen, Guillermo Ortí: Esociform phylogeny. In: Copeia. No. 3, 2004, ISSN 0045-8511 , pp. 449-464, abstract .
- ^ Tree of Life Web Project : Esociformes . Version January 01, 2005 (temporary).
Web links
- Dog fish on Fishbase.org (English)
- Umbra on Fishbase.org (English)