The true soles are a family, Soleidae, of
flatfishes. It includes saltwater and
brackish
Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estu ...
water species in the East Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and West and Central Pacific Ocean. Freshwater species are found in Africa, southern Asia,
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea).
It is a simplified version of ...
, and Australia.
In the past, soles of the Americas (both fresh and salt water) were included in this family, but they have been separated to their own family, the
American soles (Achiridae). The only true sole remaining in that region is ''
Aseraggodes herrei'' of the
Galápagos and
Cocos Island
Cocos Island ( es, Isla del Coco) is an island in the Pacific Ocean administered by Costa Rica, approximately southwest of the Costa Rican mainland. It constitutes the 11th of the 13 districts of Puntarenas Canton of the Province of Puntarenas ...
.
The true soles are bottom-dwelling fishes feeding on small
crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
s and other
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
s. The family contains 30
genera
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...
and a total of about 180 species.
Soles begin life as
bilaterally symmetric larva
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
The ...
e, with an eye on each side of the head, but during development, the left eye moves around onto the right side of the head. Adult soles lie on their left (blind) sides on the
sea floor, often covered in mud, which in combination with their dark colours, makes them hard to spot.
A flatfish resembling a small
halibut
Halibut is the common name for three flatfish in the genera '' Hippoglossus'' and ''Reinhardtius'' from the family of right-eye flounders and, in some regions, and less commonly, other species of large flatfish.
The word is derived from ''h ...
or sole was observed by the
Bathyscaphe Trieste
''Trieste'' is a Swiss-designed, Italian-built deep-diving research bathyscaphe which reached a record depth of about in the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench near Guam in the Pacific. On 23 January 1960, Jacques Piccard (son of the boat ...
at the bottom of the
Mariana Trench
The Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench located in the western Pacific Ocean, about east of the Mariana Islands; it is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth. It is crescent-shaped and measures about in length and in width. The maximum know ...
at a depth around . This observation has been questioned by fish experts, and recent authorities do not recognize it as valid.
[Jamieson, A.J., and Yancey, P. H. (2012). ]
On the Validity of the Trieste Flatfish: Dispelling the Myth.
' The Biological Bulletin
''The Biological Bulletin'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the field of biology. The journal was established in 1897 as the ''Zoological Bulletin'' by Charles Otis Whitman and William Morton Wheeler. In 1899 the title was changed to ...
222(3): 171-175
Many soles are important food species: the
common sole
The common sole, Dover sole, or black sole (''Solea solea'') is a species of flatfish in the family Soleidae. It is one of the largest fish in the ''Solea'' genus. It lives on the sandy or muddy seabed of the northern Atlantic and the Mediterr ...
, ''Solea solea'', is popular in northern
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
.
Image:Aecor_u0.png, Unicorn sole, ''Aesopia cornuta''
Image:Buglossidium luteum.jpg, Solenette, ''Buglossidium luteum''
Image:Solea solea 1.jpg, Common sole
The common sole, Dover sole, or black sole (''Solea solea'') is a species of flatfish in the family Soleidae. It is one of the largest fish in the ''Solea'' genus. It lives on the sandy or muddy seabed of the northern Atlantic and the Mediterr ...
, ''Solea solea''
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q736867
Ray-finned fish families
Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte