''Trachinotus anak'', the giant oystercracker, or oyster pompano, is a marine fish endemic to the coasts of tropical
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, one of 20 species of
pompano
Pompanos ( ) are marine fishes in the genus ''Trachinotus'' in the family Carangidae (better known as "jacks"). Pompano may also refer to various other, similarly shaped members of the Carangidae, or the order Perciformes. Their appearance is ...
(''Trachinotus'' spp.).
Description
The fish has a silvery greenish or bluish-grey color above and is paler below. It often has a bronze or a green-gold tinge. The second dorsal and caudal fins are a dusky orange to nearly black. The fins have dark leading edges. The anal fin is a
dandelion
''Taraxacum'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. The scientific and hobby study of the genus is known as taraxacology. The genus is native to Eurasia and Nor ...
yellow and the pelvic fins are paler. The pectoral fins are dark.
Taxonomy
In the early 20th century, Australian
ichthyologist
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...
James Douglas Ogilby
James Douglas Ogilby (16 February 1853 – 11 August 1925) was an Australian ichthyologist and herpetologist.
Ogilby was born in Belfast, Ireland, and was the son of zoologist William Ogilby and his wife Adelaide, née Douglas. He received h ...
was identifying fishes to give advice to fisheries, under supervision of James Stevens, the Queensland Inspector of Fisheries. When the question emerged of what was damaging oyster populations in the
Wide Bay district in January 1908, Ogilby determined that the organism to cause this damage was a large fish, yet undescribed to science. He described it as ''Trachinotus anak'' in a report in 1909.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3763485
anak
Anak (; he, , homophone to a word for "giant, long neck, necklace"; ) is a figure in the Hebrew Bible. His descendants are mentioned in narratives concerning the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites. According to the Book of Numbers, Anak was a ...
Taxa named by James Douglas Ogilby
Fish described in 1909