Peristediidae, the armored sea robins or armoured gurnards, is a

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

ray-finned fishes 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 suborder

Platycephaloidei Platycephaloidei is a suborder of ray-finned fishes, part of the order Scorpaeniformes, and includes the flatheads, ghost flatheads and sea robins. Taxonomy Platycephaloidei was first recognised and named as a taxonomic grouping in 1943 by the ...

in the order

Scorpaeniformes The Scorpaeniformes are a diverse order of ray-finned fish, including the lionfishes and sculpins, but have also been called the Scleroparei. It is one of the five largest orders of bony fishes by number of species, with over 1,320. They are ...

. They are found in the deep water in the tropical and warm temperate of the world's oceans.

Taxonomy

Peristediidae was first proposed as a family in 1883 by the American ichthyologists David Starr Jordan and

Charles Henry Gilbert Charles Henry Gilbert (December 5, 1859 in Rockford, Illinois – April 20, 1928 in Palo Alto, California) was a pioneer ichthyologist and fishery biologist of particular significance to natural history of the western United States. He c ...

. The 5th edition of '' Fishes of the World'' classifies the family within the Platycephaloidei, which is a suborder of the order Scorpaeniformes. Other authorities differ and do not consider the Scorpaeniformes to be a valid order because the

Perciformes Perciformes (), also called the Percomorpha or Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish. If considered a single order, they are the most numerous order of vertebrates, containing about 41% of all bony fish. Perciformes means ...

is not monophyletic without the taxa within the Scorpaeniformes being included within it. These authorities consider the Peristediidae to belong to the suborder Triglioidei, along with the family

Triglidae Triglidae, commonly known as gurnards or sea robins, are a family of bottom-feeding scorpaeniform ray-finned fish. The gurnards are distributed in temperate and tropical seas worldwide. Taxonomy Triglidae was first described as a family in 181 ...

, within the Perciformes. The family Peristediidae is included in the Triglidae as the subfamily Peristediinae by some authorities.

Genera

The following genera are classified within the family Peristediidae: * '' Gargariscus'' H. M. Smith, 1917 * '' Heminodus'' H. M. Smith, 1917 * '' Paraheminodus'' Kamohara, 1958 * '' Peristedion'' Lacépède, 1801 * '' Satyrichthys'' Kaup, 1873 * '' Scalicus'' Jordan, 1923 Taxonomists working on the armoured gurnards have found that the family is monophyletic and that it divides into two

clades A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

, one consisting of only the genus ''Peristedion'' and the other 5 genera making up the other clade.

Etymology

Peristediidae takes its name from the genus ''Peristedion'' which is a combination of ''peri'', meaning "around", and ''stedion'', which is a diminutive of ''stethos'', which is Greek for "breast" or "chest", an allusion to the bony plates lining the underside of the body, similar to a plastron, the feature Lacépède use to distinguish ''Peristidion'' from '' Trigla''.

Characteristics

Peristediidae fishes have the body encased in 4 rows of thick scutes, each plate is spined, on each side of the body. The mouth is under the snout with barbels on the lower jaw. Each of the preorbitals have a forward pointing projection. There are no scales on the head and body. The head is large and bony with numerous spines and ridges with a wide snout which is flattened on the top and bottom. They have no teeth and usually no tongue, although where there is a tongue it is simple and forked. There are two separate

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 c ...

s; the first contains between 7 and 9 spines while the second has between 16 and 23 segmented soft rays. The anal fin contains between 16 and 23 soft rays. The pectoral fins are short with joined rays and the lower 2 are free from the membrane. The swimbladder has one lobe. The smallest species in the family is '' Peristedion paucibarbiger'' which has a maximum published standard length of while the largest species is the black-finned armoured-gurnard (''Satyrichthys moluccensis'') which has a maximum standard length of .

Distribution and habitat

Peristediidae fishes are found in the warmer waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. These fishes are found on

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or insular slopes, typically at depths greater than .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q687649 Platycephaloidei Ray-finned fish families