Syngnathoidea
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Sea dragon ( Phyllopteryx taeniolatus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Syngnathoidea | ||||||||||||
The Syngnathoidea are a superfamily of fish from the order of the pipefish-like (Syngnathiformes). The superfamily is divided into two families: the species-rich pipefish (Syngnathidae) and the ghost pipefish (Solenostomidae), to which only five species belong. Species of the Syngnathoidea live worldwide in tropical, subtropical and temperate seas, especially near the coast near the seabed, in rocky and coral reefs and in algae and seagrass meadows . However, there are also pelagic species and among the pipefish there are also brackish water dwellers and freshwater fish . In total, over 50 genera and almost 300 species belong to the Syngnathoidea, including the most famous of them being the seahorses ( hippocampus ).
features
The body of the syngnathoid is more or less elongated. In all Syngnathoidea the head and body are completely enclosed by a bone plate armor and the tail is surrounded by ring-shaped bone plates. The mouth is small and toothless, the "snout" (region between the tip of the mouth and the eyes) is tubular, the hyoid bone is short. The tear bone (lacrymale) is large. The metapterygoid , a wing bone in fish, and the post cleithrum , a bone in the shoulder girdle , are missing. The gill openings are reduced to small holes that lie dorsolaterally (located on the sides of the back) directly behind the head. The gill filaments have grown together to form larger lobes. In the gill cover bones the interopercular is clearly separated from the reduced subopercular. The posterior temporal bones (post-temporal) are fused with the cranium , the three anterior vertebrae are elongated.
All Syngnathoidea have one to three Branchiostegalstrahl , which protect the gill space towards the abdomen and are elongated. A sideline is missing.
Reproduction
All Syngnathoidea practice brood care , with the ghost pipefish the females carry the eggs around with them in the large pelvic fins formed into a pocket, with the pipefish the males take over the eggs from the female in order to carry them on the underside of the belly or tail, which has been changed like a sponge. In the seahorses, the males have a brood pouch in which the female lays the eggs.
Familys
- Ghost pipefish family (Solenostomidae)
- Family pipefish (Syngnathidae)
literature
- Joseph S. Nelson : Fishes of the World , John Wiley & Sons, 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7