The Patagonian blennie (''Eleginops maclovinus''), also known as the rock cod, is a species 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 hor ...

, belonging to the

monotypic 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 "unispec ...

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

Eleginopidae and monotypic

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

''Eleginops''. It is found in coastal and

estuarine An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

habitats around southernmost

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

Taxonomy

The Patagonian blennie was first formally described in 1830 as ''Eleginus maclovinus'' by the French

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, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier ...

with the type locality given as the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...

. Cuvier's genus name was later shown to be unavailable as it was a junior synonym of the

cod Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...

genus '' Eleginus'' described by

Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim (russian: Григо́рий Ива́нович Фи́шер фон Ва́льдгейм, translit=Grigórij Ivánovič Fíšer fon Vál'dgejm; 13 October 1771 – 18 October 1853) was a Saxon anatomist, entomol ...

in 1813,

Theodore Nicholas Gill Theodore Nicholas Gill (March 21, 1837 – September 25, 1914) was an American ichthyologist, mammalogist, malacologist and librarian. Career Born and educated in New York City under private tutors, Gill early showed interest in natural history ...

renamed the genus as ''Eleginops'', meaning "similar to ''Eleginus'' in 1862. Gill then placed it in the monotypic family Eleginopidae in 1893. The specific name ''maclovinus'' means belonging to the Maclove Islands, an old name for the Falkland Islands. The Eleginopidae are the sister family of the

Bovichtidae Bovichtidae, the temperate icefishes or thornfishes, is a family of marine ray-finned fishes, classified in the suborder Notothenioidei of the order Perciformes. They are native to coastal waters off Australia, New Zealand, and South America. ...

and

Pseudaphritidae The congoli (''Pseudaphritis urvillii''), also known as the freshwater flathead, marble fish, marbled flathead, sand trout, sanding, sandy, sandy whiting or tupong. is a species of marine ray-finned fish and it is the only species of fish in t ...

and these are all sister to the rest of the families in the

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 approxima ...

which have been placed in the suggested

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

Cryonotothenioidea.

Description

The Patagonian blennie has 7-8 spines in its 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 conv ...

and 23-27 soft rays in its second dorsal fin. The

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 se ...

is emarginate. The colour of the body is blue brown above and silvery yellow below. Both dorsal fins are greyish in colour and the caudal fin is brownish and these fins have yellowish margins. The

anal 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 se ...

is light brown. It reaches about in length.

Distribution and habitat

The Patagonian blennie is found in the southeastern Pacific and southwestern Atlantic Ocean from Valparaiso in Chile south to Tierra del Fuego and north along the coast of Patagonia in Argentina, It is also found around the Falkland Islands. They are found in coastal, estuarine, and tidally influenced rivers.

Biology

The Patagonian blennie is an

omnivore An omnivore () is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nutr ...

, tending towards

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...

. In some parts of its range, it is especially fond of ''

Paracorophium ''Paracorophium'' is a genus of amphipods in the family Corophiidae. Species * ''Paracorophium brisbanensis'' Chapman, 2002 * ''Paracorophium excavatum ''Paracorophium excavatum'' is a species of amphipod in the family Corophiidae. It has be ...

'', but it is opportunistic, and its exact diet depends on the availability in the habitat where the individual fish lives. It can live for up to 10 years. It appears to be a

protandrous hermaphrodite Sequential hermaphroditism (called dichogamy in botany) is a type of hermaphroditism that occurs in many fish, gastropods, and plants. Sequential hermaphroditism occurs when the individual changes its sex at some point in its life. In particular, ...

, in one study males were found at lengths between while females were found at which suggested that the sex change from male to female took place at ages between 2 and 7 years old.

Fisheries

The Patagonian blennie is commonly fished in parts of its range. There have been trials for the use of this species as a cleaner fish to control

sea lice Sea lice (singular: sea louse) are copepods (small crustaceans) of the family Caligidae within the order Siphonostomatoida. They are marine ectoparasites (external parasites) that feed on the mucus, epidermal tissue, and blood of host fish. The ...

in the

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...

salmonid Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish that constitutes the only currently extant family in the order Salmoniformes . It includes salmon (both Atlantic and Pacific species), trout (both ocean-going and landlocked), chars, freshwater whitefis ...

s in Chile.

Human culture

The Patagonian blennie has been featured on a

stamp Stamp or Stamps or Stamping may refer to: Official documents and related impressions * Postage stamp, used to indicate prepayment of fees for public mail * Ration stamp, indicating the right to rationed goods * Revenue stamp, used on documents to ...

in the Falkland Islands issued in 1994. In Argentina and Chile, it is often called ''róbalo'', a name also used for the

common snook The common snook (''Centropomus undecimalis'') is a species of Seawater, marine fish in the family (biology), family Centropomidae of the order (biology), order Perciformes. The common snook is also known as the sergeant fish or robalo. It was o ...

Religious significance to the indigenous people

The abundant and nutritious patagonian blennies were apparently not consumed by the indigenous people of

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla G ...

Rock art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...

suggests the fish may have had some religious significance.

References

External links

Photograph
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2056618 Notothenioidei Fish described in 1830