Eelpout
| Eelpouts | |
|---|---|
| Lycodichthys antarcticus habitus drawing | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Superclass: | Osteichthyes |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Subclass: | Neopterygii |
| Infraclass: | Teleostei |
| Superorder: | Acanthopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes (disputed) |
| Suborder: | Zoarcoidei |
| Family: | Zoarcidae Swainson, 1839 |
| Subfamilies | |
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Gymnelinae |
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The eelpouts are the ray-finned fish family Zoarcidae. As the common name suggests, they are somewhat eel-like in appearance, with elongate bodies, and the dorsal and anal fins continuous with the caudal fin. All of the approximately 220 species are marine, mostly bottom-dwelling, some at great depths. They are sometimes called "fish doctors" (not to be confused with the doctorfish or surgeon fishes).
They are traditionally placed in the "perciform" assemblage; in fact, the Zoarcoidei seem to be specialized member of the Gasterosteiformes-Scorpaeniformes group of Acanthopterygii.[1]
The largest member of the family is the Ocean Pout (Zoarces americanus), which may reach 1.1 meter. Other notable family members include the slipskins (Lycodapus) and unernaks (Gymnelus).
Contents |
Popular culture
The International Eelpout Festival that takes place in February in Walker, Minnesota, celebrates the burbot, which is actually a cod-like fish misleadingly known locally as the eelpout. [2] Photographs [3]
Genera and selected species
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Timeline
Footnotes
- ^ Kawahara et al. (2008)
- ^ http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/28/smallbusiness/mardi_gras_minnesota.fsb/index.htm Mardi Gras on ice
- ^ http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/smallbusiness/0912/gallery.eelpout_festival.fsb/index.html A festival of ice and fish
- ^ a b c d Matallanas, Jesús (2010). "Description of two new genera, Santelmoa and Bentartia and two new species of Zoarcidae (Teleostei, Perciformes) from the Southern Ocean". Polar Biology 33 (5): 659–672. http://www.springerlink.com/content/t234r08x66462347/.
References
- Kawahara, Ryouka; Miya, Masaki; Mabuchi, Kohji; Lavoue, Sébastien; Inoue, Jun G.; Satoh, Takashi P.; Kawaguchi, Akira & Nishida, Mutsumi (2008): Interrelationships of the 11 gasterosteiform families (sticklebacks, pipefishes, and their relatives): A new perspective based on mitogenome sequences from 75 higher teleosts. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 46(1): 224–236. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.07.009 (HTML abstract)
- Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology 364: p.560. http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class. Retrieved 2011-05-19.