The quillfish, (''Ptilichthys goodei''), 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 h ...

, it is the only species in the genus ''Ptilichthys'' and family Ptilichthyidae. This fish occurs in the northern North Pacific Ocean.

Taxonomy

The quillfish was first formally described in 1881 by the American ichthyologist

Tarleton Hoffman Bean Tarleton Hoffman Bean (October 8, 1846 – December 28, 1916) was an American ichthyologist. Biography and education Tarleton Hoffman Bean was born to George Bean and Mary Smith Bean in Bainbridge, Pennsylvania, on October 8, 1846. He attended ...

with its type locality given as the entrance to # Port Levasheff in Unalaska in the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a chain of 14 large v ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

. Bean also proposed 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 "unispe ...

genus ''Ptilichthys'' when he described this species. In 1883 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 ...

classified Bean's genus in a

monogeneric 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, the Ptilichthyidae. The 5th edition of '' Fishes of the World'' classifies this family within the suborder

Zoarcoidei Zoarcoidei is a suborder of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Scorpaeniformes. The suborder includes the wolffishes, gunnels and eelpouts. The suborder includes about 400 species. These fishes predominantly found in the boreal s ...

, within the order Scorpaeniformes. Other authorities classify this family in the

infraorder 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 ...

Zoarcales wihin the suborder Cottoidei of 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 ...

because removing the Scorpaeniformes from the Perciformes renders that taxon non monophyletic.

Etymology

The generic name ''Ptilichthys'' is a combination of ''ptilon'', which is

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

for "quill" with ''ichthys''. meaning "fish", an allusion to the feather-like appearance of this fish, being extremely elongate, slender and with long dorsal and anal fins. The specific name honours the American ichthyologist

George Brown Goode George Brown Goode (February 13, 1851 – September 6, 1896), was an American ichthyologist and museum administrator. He graduated from Wesleyan University and studied at Harvard University. Early life and family George Brown Goode was born Februa ...

, who was a colleague and collaborator of Bean's.

Description

The Quillfish has an extremely elongate, slender body with lon-based tall

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage * Dorsal c ...

and anal fins which make the fish similar in shape to the

primary feather Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tail ...

of a bird or a

quill pen A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal- nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventuall ...

. The small head is only between 4 and 7% of the length of the body and there is a wide fleshy appendage at the front of the lower jaw. The dorsal fin has its origin on the nape and has between 79 and 90 low spines, free of the fin membrane, followed by between 130 and 157 soft rays. The anal gprin has its origin at around a third of the body length, contains 166 to 196 soft rays. Both the dorsal fins are joined to the much reduced

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 ...

. As the fish grows the caudal fin has a fleshy extension which extends and becomes more or less filamentous. It has rounded

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 ...

s but no pelvic fins and lacks a

pelvic girdle The pelvis (plural pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of the trunk, between the abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis, or pelvic skeleton). The p ...

. There is a single pair of nostrils. The minute cycloid scales are scattered or may be absent. The sharp, conical teeth are present in the jaw, arranged in a dense single row, but there are no other teeth. There is no

pyloric caeca Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or basket stars. Starfish a ...

or swim bladder. The overall colour may be yellow or orange to greenish gray, and the body is rather translucent. There is a dark streak along body with others on head in preserved specimens. Attains up to 39 cm length not including caudal filament. The species attains a maximum published total length of .

Distribution and habitat

The quillfish occurs in the northern North Pacific Ocean from the Bering Sea in the north and south to

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

in the eastern Pacific and to the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, i ...

and Sea of Okhotsk in the western Pacific. They are demersal fish which arefound at depths between .

Biology

Quillfish have been found on the surface at night, attracted by the lights of fishing boats, but little is known about its daytime habits; it may burrow in sandy and muddy bottoms during the day, emerging at dusk to feed and they are attracted to artificial lights. Quillfishes have been found in the stomachs of juvenile

Coho salmon The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family (biology), family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". The scientif ...

, ''Oncorhynchus kisutch'', and

Chinook salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus '' Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ...

, ''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha''. The longest quillfish was nearly as long (82%) as its

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

References