''Artedidraco'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or h ...

es belonging to the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Artedidraconidae The Artedidraconidae, barbeled plunderfishes, are a family of marine ray-finned fishes, notothenioids belonging to the Perciform suborder Notothenioidei. The family comprises four genera. These fishes are endemic to deep waters off Antarctica. ...

, the barbeled plunderfishes. They are native to the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

Taxonomy

''Artedidraco'' was first described as a genus in 1905 by the Swedish

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...

Einar Lönnberg when he created the genus for ''Artedidraco mirus'', a new species of fish from South Georgia he was describing following the collection of its

types Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type In computer science and computer programming, a data type (or simply type) is a set of possible values and a set of allo ...

by the

Swedish Antarctic Expedition The Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901–1903 was a scientific expedition led by Otto Nordenskjöld and Carl Anton Larsen. It was the first Swedish endeavour to Antarctica in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Background Otto Nordensk ...

. As it was the only species in the enw genus it was the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

monotypy In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

. The generic name is a compound of Artedi, honouring the Swedish naturalist

Peter Artedi Peter Artedi or Petrus Arctaedius (27 February 170528 September 1735) was a Swedish naturalist who is known as the "father of ichthyology". Artedi was born in Anundsjö in the province of Ångermanland. Intending to become a clergyman, he wen ...

who was known as the “father of ichthyology,” and who was born 200 years before Lönnberg described ''A. mirus'' with ''draco'', from ''dracœna'' meaning “dragon” an

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

name for the

weeverfish Weevers (or weeverfish) are nine extant species of fishes of family Trachinidae, order Trachiniformes, part of the Percomorpha clade. They are long (up to 37 cm), mainly brown in color, and have venomous spines on their first dorsal fin ...

genus ''

Trachinus ''Trachinus'' is a genus of weevers, order Perciformes that consists of seven extant species. Six of the genus representatives inhabit the waters of Eastern Atlantic Ocean, but only one, ''Trachinus cornutus'', inhabits the South-Eastern Pacific ...

'' , although this may be a reference to the relationship Lönnberg mentioned to '' Draconetta'' which was thought to be a member of the Nototheniidae at that time.

Species

There are currently 7 recognized species in this genus: * '' Artedidraco glareobarbatus'' Eastman &

Eakin Eakin is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bruce Eakin, Canadian ice-hockey player * Chris Eakin, British newsreader *Cody Eakin, Canadian ice-hockey player *Douglas Holtz-Eakin, American economist * Harvey Eakin, forme ...

, 1999 * '' Artedidraco longibarbatus'' Eakin, Riginella & La Mesa, 2015 (Long-beard plunderfish) Eakin, R.R., Riginella, E. & La Mesa, M. (2015): A new species of ''Artedidraco'' (Pisces: Artedidraconidae) from the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. ''Polar Biology, 38 (10): 1597-1603.'' * '' Artedidraco lonnbergi'' Roule, 1913 * '' Artedidraco mirus'' Lönnberg, 1905 * '' Artedidraco orianae''

Regan The family name Regan, along with its cognates O'Regan, O Regan, Reagan, and O'Reagan, is an Anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Riagáin or Ó Ríogáin, from Ua Riagáin. The meaning is likely to have originated in ancient Gaelic ''ri'' ...

, 1914 * '' Artedidraco shackletoni'' Waite, 1911 * '' Artedidraco skottsbergi'' Lönnberg, 1905

Characteristics

''Artedidraco'' is the

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal ...

of the family Artedidraconidae and so has many of the features characteristic of that family. Within the Atredidraconidae this genus is separated from the others by the first

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

being located above the

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

base. Their heads have a width which is roughly the same as their depth and the post temporal ridges are weakly developed. The snout is shorter than the diameter of the eye and the space between the eyes is narrow. The mental

barbel Barbel may refer to: *Barbel (anatomy), a whisker-like organ near the mouth found in some fish (notably catfish, loaches and cyprinids) and turtles *Barbel (fish), a common name for certain species of fish **''Barbus barbus'', a species of cyprinid ...

, the barbel on the chin which characterises the barbeled plunderfishes, is tapered or expanded towards its tip. They have small jaws which are equipped with small conical teeth arranged in a band of many series of teeth. The upper lateral line has tubed scales at the head end and towards the caudal fin it normally has disc shaped scales, the middle lateral line consist of disc-shaped scales.. The maximum

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

of these fishes varies from in ''A. lonnbergi'' to in ''A. orianae''.

Distribution, habitat and biology

''Artedidraco'' is found in the coastal waters of the Antarctic continent with one species, ''A. mirus'' occurring as far north as South Georgia. They are found in the nearshore

sublittoral The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal area ...

zone and on the continental shelf and have been recorded as deep as . Their biology is little known but the species in this genus feed largely on

polychaetes Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made ...

and small

crustaceans Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2317420 Artedidraconidae Marine fish genera Taxa named by Einar Lönnberg