''Lasiognathus waltoni'' is a species of

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

ray-finned fish belonging to the family

Thaumatichthyidae Thaumatichthyidae, the wolftrap anglers, is a small family of deep-sea anglerfishes, containing two genera and eight species found in all oceans. They are commonly known as wolftrap anglers or wolftrap seadevils because of their distinctive upper ...

, the wolftrap anglers. This species is known only from the eastern central Pacific Ocean.

Taxonomy

''Lasiognatus waltoni'' was first formally described in 1975 by the

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 ...

s Ronald Scott Nolan and Richard Heinrich Rosenblatt with its type locality given as the Caribbean Sea, approximately the northern central Pacific, to the northeast of the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...

], at 30°39.1'N, 155°23.4'W or 30°39.2'N, 155°18.1'W, from a depth of where the sea was deep. The genus ''Lasiognathus'' is classified by the 5th edition of

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011) is a standard reference for fish systematics. Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of the diversity and classification of the ...

in the family Thaumatichthyidae within the

suborder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

Ceratioidei of the

anglerfish The anglerfish are fish of the teleost order Lophiiformes (). They are bony fish named for their characteristic mode of predation, in which a modified luminescent fin ray (the esca or illicium) acts as a lure for other fish. The luminescence ...

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

Lophiiformes.

Etymology

''Lasiognathus waltoni'' is a member of the genus ''Lasiognathus'', this name is a combination of ''lasios'', meaning "bearded", and ''gnathus'', which means "jaw". This may be a reference to the many long teeth in the upper jaw, goving the appearance of a beard. 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 Sir

Izaak Walton Izaak Walton (baptised 21 September 1593 – 15 December 1683) was an English writer. Best known as the author of ''The Compleat Angler'', he also wrote a number of short biographies including one of his friend John Donne. They have been colle ...

, the author of '' The Compleat Angler'', so this is an aglerfish named in honour of a famous angler.

Description

''Lasiognathus waltoni'' has its dorsal fin supported by 7 or 7 soft rays while 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 ...

contains 4 or 5 soft rays. The species in ''Lasiognathus'' are identified from one another by the morphology of their esca and in this species the bulb of the esca has a membrane-like crest on its front. The appendage on the tip has a cylindrical stalk with thin filaments along its edge but no filaments emerging from the bases of the escal hooks. The appendage on the rear of the esca is broad and laterally flattened. The illicium emerges from under the escal pore. The only kbown

specimen Specimen may refer to: Science and technology * Sample (material), a limited quantity of something which is intended to be similar to and represent a larger amount * Biological specimen or biospecimen, an organic specimen held by a biorepository ...

, the holotype, of this species had a

standard 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 m ...

of .

Distribution and habitat

''Lasiognathus waltoni''is known from a single specimen collected from near Oahu in 1972 from a depth of between .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2275859 waltoni Fish described in 1875 Taxa named by Richard Heinrich Rosenblatt