De Beaufort's flathead (''Cymbacephalus beauforti''), also known as the crocodilefish or giant flathead, is a species of marine
ray-finned fish belonging to the
family Platycephalidae
The Platycephalidae are a family of marine fish, most commonly referred to as flatheads. They are relatives of the popular lionfish, belonging to the order Scorpaeniformes.
Taxonomy
Platycephalidae was first proposed as a family in 1839 by the E ...
, the flatheads. It is found in the
Western Pacific Ocean.
Taxonomy
De Beaufort's flathead was first formally
described in 1973 as ''Platycephalus beauforti'' with its
type locality given as off
Urukthapel Island in the
Palau Islands.
The
Specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
honours the Dutch
ichthyologist
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...
Lieven Ferdinand de Beaufort of the
University of Amsterdam, who made many notable contributions to ichthyology and who at the age of 88 wrote to Knapp encouraging him to revise the family Platycephalidae.
Description
De Beaufort's flathead is a medium-sized
fish which grows up to 50 cm (19.7 in), but the average size mostly observed is 35 cm (13.8 in).
[
The body is elongated and the head is particular because of its flat appearance like a duck bill.
They have lappets at the rear of their globulous eyes, which help to break up the outline of the black iris and improve their camouflage.
Juveniles begin black with few white spots and a white line behind the head.
The adults have a body coloration which can vary in intensity according to the surrounding. The body is covered with a pattern like a mosaic of beige to brown spots or even greenish to grey separated by an interlacing of blue lines which ideally camouflaged them with their habitat.]
Distribution and habitat
De Beaufort's flathead has a wide distribution extending from the Mentawai Islands in the far east of the Indian Ocean off Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
and including the Philippines, Borneo, Maluku Islands, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia
)
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, map_alt = Location of New Caledonia
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, Palau and from Yap Island to Ishigaki Island.[
De Beaufort's flathead is found shallow water in areas of sand or coral rubble, near seagrasses or mangroves. They are typically found at depths of ,][
File:Cymbacephalus beauforti 1.jpg
File:Cymbacephalus beauforti 2.jpg
File:Cymbacephalus beauforti.jpg
File:28-EastTimor-Dive Sandy-Bottom 13 (Crocodile Fish)-APiazza.JPG
File:46-EastTimor-Dive2 SecretGarden 06 (Crocodile Fish)-APiazza.JPG
]
Biology
De Beaufort's flatheads are demersal
The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer of ...
ambush predators which feed mainly on smaller fish and crustaceans. The breeding biology of this species is little known but it is thought that the minimum population doubles at intervals between 4.5 and 14 years.
Eye lappet
References
External links
MarineBio.org entry for Cymbacephalus beauforti (crocodilefish)
Marinespecies.org
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q901557
Platycephalidae
Fish described in 1973