''Palatogobius grandoculus'' is a species of marine fish in the

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 ...

Gobiidae and the

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 ...

Gobiiformes The Gobiiformes are an order of fish that includes the gobies and their relatives. The order, which was previously considered a suborder of Perciformes, is made up of about 2,211 species that are divided between seven families. Phylogenetic rel ...

. Its name comes from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word ''palatum'' (palate) which pertains to palate and its teeth which form there, plus the Latin word ''gobius'', which means goby. The species name ''grandoculus'' (from the Latin words ''grand'' and ''oculus'') refers to this species' very large eyes. Romero, P., 2002. An etymological dictionary of taxonomy. Madrid, unpublished.

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 ...

s of ''P. grandoculus'' were collected as early as 1976, and originally described as the Mauve Goby, however it was not formally identified as a separate species and described until 2002.

Description

Members of this species reach 3.2 cm (1.3 in) total length, and have 27

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

.''Palatogobius grandoculus'' Greenfield, 2002
FishBase. Their

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 ...

s contain only 8

spine Spine or spinal may refer to: Science Biology * Vertebral column, also known as the backbone * Dendritic spine, a small membranous protrusion from a neuron's dendrite * Thorns, spines, and prickles, needle-like structures in plants * Spine (zoolog ...

s but 17–18 soft rays. Similarly, their

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 ...

s have only one spine, but 18–19 soft rays. Overall, this species is very similar in appearance to its relative, the Mauve goby ('' Palatogobius paradoxus''), however ''P. grandoculus'' has a much larger eye and shorter snout than ''P. paradoxus'', as well as a much narrower band of skull between the

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...

s. Its body

scale Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

s also extend forward on the sides, past the origin of the first dorsal fin, while other members of its genus have scales which only extend to beneath the second dorsal fin.

Distribution and habitat

''P. grandoculus'' is found in marine waters and lives at depths between 253 and 276 meters (830 to 905 feet).Bogutskaya NG (2007). Preliminary assignment of coordinates to type localities in the Catalog of Fishes. Unpublished dbf file. It can be encountered in the western

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

, especially near

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and was originally collected near Cancún.FishBase
Countries reported map. It lives near the sea bed and can be found above coral fragments or sandy bottoms.Patzner RA, Van Tassell JL, Kova M, Kapoor BG (2011). The Biology of Gobies. Enfield, NH: Science Publishers; Boca Raton, FL: Distributed by CRC Press, 685 pages.

References

External links

AQUATAB

World Register of Marine Species

Catalogue of Life
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2602758 Gobiidae Fish described in 2002 Fish of the Caribbean