The Artedidraconidae, barbeled plunderfishes, are a

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 ...

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, notothenioids belonging to the Perciform suborder Notothenioidei. The family comprises four genera. These fishes are endemic to deep waters off

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

Taxonomy

Artedidraconidae was first described as a family in 1988 by the American ichthyologist Richard Eakin with ''Artedidraco'' as its type genus, the type species of '' Artedidraco'' is '' A. mirus'' which was described 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 Axel Johann Einar Lönnberg (24 December 1865 – 21 November 1942) was a Swedish zoologist and conservationist. Lönnberg was born in Stockholm. He was head of the Vertebrate Department of the '' Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet'' (Swedish Natural H ...

. The genera in the family were previously classified as part of the Harpagiferidae. The family is classified within the suborder

Notothenioidei Notothenioidei is one of 19 suborders of the order Perciformes. The group is found mainly in Antarctic and Subantarctic waters, with some species ranging north to southern Australia and southern South America. Notothenioids constitute approx ...

of the order

Perciformes Perciformes (), also called the Percomorpha or Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish. If considered a single order, they are the most numerous order of vertebrates, containing about 41% of all bony fish. Perciformes means ...

. The name of the family 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.

Genera

The following four genera are classified within the family Artedidraconidae: * '' Artedidraco'' Lönnberg, 1905 * '' Dolloidraco'' Roule, 1913 * '' Histiodraco''

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 * '' Pogonophryne'' Regan, 1914 Artedidraconidae taxa are said to have undergone sympatric speciation.

Characteristics

Artedidraconidae fishes are characterised by having a body tapering from their large heads to their

caudal 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 ...

s. They have 2

dorsal fins 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 conv ...

, the first contains 2-7 spines and the second has 22-30 segmented soft rays while the anal fin has 14-21 soft rays. They have large

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 ...

s containing 14-21 fin rays while the pelvic fins are positioned at the jugular and contain a single long, sharp spine and 5 soft rays. There are 8-11 branched rays in the caudal fin. They have a large and protractile mouth with small conical teeth on the jaws but none elsewhere. The snout has a single nostril on each side. There is a flattened and hooked spine on the operculum. There are no scales on the head and body. There are two lateral lines, upper and middle. A mental barbel, i.e. on the chin, is a characteristic of this family; the morphology of this barbel is variable with the species. They have structures called convexitas superaxillaris, which are large spherical protrusions with an elastic feel on the body, situated just under the base of the pectoral fin; they may have a role in the system of cold resistance, secreting anti-freeze proteins and possibly a social function, expressing dominance. The smallest species is '' Pogonophryne albipinna'' which has a maximum standard length of while the largest species in the family is '' Pogonophryne neyelovi'' which has a maximum total length of .

Distribution, habitat and biology

Artedidraconidae is found in 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 ...

where they occur in deeper waters around the continent of Antarctica and some sub Antarctic islands. That are found at depths between . These fishes are sluggish and sedentary and typically stay motionless on the substrate for long periods waiting for prey to come to them, normally peracarid

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 ...

and polychaete worms.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q147364 category:Notothenioidei