''Parabembras multisquamata'', is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

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

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 ...

Bembridae Bembridae, the deep-water flatheads, are a family of bottom-dwelling ray-finned fishes. They are found in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. Taxonomy Bembridae was first proposed as a family in 1873 by the German zoologist Johann Jakob Kaup ...

, the deepwater flatheads. It is found in the tropical western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Taxonomy

''Parabembras multisquamata'' was first formally described in 2018 by Yoshiaki Kai and

Ronald Fricke Ronald Fricke is a German ichthyologist and researcher of biodiversity at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart. As of 2022, Fricke authored 8 families, 10 genera and 186 species within the families of Callionymidae, Gobiesocidae, Ophic ...

with the type locality given as Big Bay on

Espiritu Santo Espiritu Santo (, ; ) is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, with an area of and a population of around 40,000 according to the 2009 census. Geography The island belongs to the archipelago of the New Hebrides in the Pacific region o ...

in Vanuatu. Fricke first reported this species in Papua New Guinea in 2015 and this specimen is now one of the

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype nor a syntype). Of ...

s of this species. The genus ''

Parabembras ''Parabembras'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Bembridae, the deepwater flatheads, although they are sufficiently different from the other genera in that family to be classified as their own family, Parabembradidae, ...

'' is sufficiently different from the other genera in that family to be classified as their own family, Parabembradidae, by some authorities. The specific name ''multisquamata'' is a combination of ''multi'', which means "many", and ''squamatus'', meaning "scaled", a reference to the high number, i.e. 40-44, of pored scales in the

lateral-line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

Description

''Parabembras multisquamata'' has a reddish-orange head and body and white ventrally. The 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 ...

is dark red in color with the second dorsal fin red with black marking.

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 ...

bright red. A symphyseal knob on the lower jaw is absent. Two preocular spines and two lachrymal spines are present. There are 9–11 supraocular spines and 10 spines in the first dorsal fin. Body cylindrical and posteriorly weakly compressed. Scales ctenoid. Mouth large and slightly oblique. This species attains a maximum published

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

''Parabembras multisquamata'' occurs in the tropical western Pacific Ocean where it has been recorded from the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. It is a

bathydemersal Demersal fish, also known as groundfish, live and feed on or near the bottom of seas or lakes (the demersal zone).Walrond Carl . "Coastal fish - Fish of the open sea floor"Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Updated 2 March 2009 They occ ...

species that is found at depths between .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q55628565 Fish described in 2018 multisquamata Taxa named by Ronald Fricke