Ostracoberyx
Ostracoberyx | ||||||||||||
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Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
Ostracoberycidae | ||||||||||||
Fowler , 1934 | ||||||||||||
Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
Ostracoberyx | ||||||||||||
Fowler, 1934 |
Ostracoberyx is a genus of small, perch-related marine fish. They mostly occur near the seabed in the western Pacific and in the northern and eastern Indian Ocean from Zanzibar , Tanzania and Madagascar to southern Japan and eastern Australia at depths of 250 to 710 meters.
features
Ostracoberyx species grow to be 8 to 23 centimeters long. They are relatively high-backed and resemble the mucous heads (Berycidae) of the genus Beryx (English Alfonsinos), which is why they are called Shellskin alfonsinos in English. The scales are small, rough, and embedded in the skin. The upper skull bones are very massive and form a kind of helmet around the head. Further protective functions are taken over by a large backward-pointing spine, which sits on the lower part of the gill cover, and the strong fin spines in the first dorsal fin, the anal fin and the pelvic fins. Ostracoberyx species have 25 vertebrae.
Systematics
The genus Ostracoberyx was assigned in the past to the mucous head-like (Beryciformes), the saw bass (Serranidae) and the Pomatomidae . It currently belongs to the Ostracoberycidae family alone.
For Ostracoberyx dorygenys a high-backed and large-headed “ Tholichthys ” stage with numerous spines was found in a late stage of larval development , as also occurs in butterflyfish (Chaetodontidae) and Argus fish (Scatophagidae).
species
There are three types:
- Ostracoberyx dorygenys Fowler, 1934
- Ostracoberyx fowleri Matsubara, 1939
- Ostracoberyx paxtoni Quéro & Ozouf-Costaz, 1991
literature
- Joseph S. Nelson : Fishes of the World. Wiley, New York 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7 .
- AV Suntsov: A tentative Tholichthys stage in development of Ostracoberyx and its bearing on systematics of Ostracoberycidae. Journal of Ichthyology, Volume 47, Number 7 / August 2007, doi : 10.1134 / S0032945207070041
Web links
- Ostracoberycidae on Fishbase.org (English)