The woolly sculpin (''Clinocottus analis'') 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 ...

belonging to the family

Cottidae The Cottidae are a family of fish in the superfamily Cottoidea, the sculpins. It is the largest sculpin family, with about 275 species in 70 genera.Kane, E. A. and T. E. Higham. (2012)Life in the flow lane: differences in pectoral fin morphology ...

, the typical sculpins. It is found in the eastern

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 contin ...

, where it occurs along the coastline of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

Taxonomy

''Clinocottus analis'' was first formally described as ''Oligocottus analis'' in 1858 by the French ichthyologist

Charles Frédéric Girard Charles Frédéric Girard (8 March 1822 – 29 January 1895) was a French biologist specializing in ichthyology and herpetology. Born in Mulhouse, France, he studied at the College of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, as a student of Louis Agassiz. I ...

with its type locality given as Monterey, California. The genus ''

Clinocottus ''Clinocottus'' is a genus of sculpins, nearshore benthic fishes native to the northeastern Pacific Ocean. They are mentioned as sharpnose sculpins. Molecular data indicate that this genus is polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assembl ...

'' has been resolved as paraphyletic or

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

by some workers and that this species is apparently not closely related to the other species included in the genus. This species is the only species subgenus ''Clinocottus'' which was proposed as a genus by

Theodore Gill Theodore Nicholas Gill (March 21, 1837 – September 25, 1914) was an American ichthyologist, mammalogist, malacologist and librarian. Career Born and educated in New York City under private tutors, Gill early showed interest in natural histo ...

in 1861. The specific name, ''analis'', refers to the anus, an allusion Girard did not explain, although he did describe this species as having the origin of the anal fin placed behind forward edge of the second dorsal fin. In 1898 it was suggested by David Starr Jordan and Barton Warren Evermann that the name referred to the “large anal papilla,” but Girard did not mention this.

Description

This fish reaches up to 18 centimeters in length. Their characteristic elongated and speckled body ends with a large wide and flattened head. Their eyes are found on the top of their head perpendicular to their large mouth aligned with many teeth. They are scaleless, instead, they have gills covering their large spine ending in a pair of sharp spines. They have dorsal, anal and caudal fins, each with 12 to 15 rays. The caudal fin is rounded and darker than the rest of their body.

Ecology and metabolism

This species lives on the seabed of

intertidal The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species ...

waters up to 18 meters deep. It is commonly found in

tide pool A tide pool or rock pool is a shallow pool of seawater that forms on the rocky intertidal shore. Many of these pools exist as separate bodies of water only at low tide. Many tide pool habitats are home to especially adaptable animals that ...

s amidst algaes, but it leaves the tide pool area at will. It can breathe air and has been known to survive out of water for up to 24 hours.

Habitat

They are commonly found near the sand, small rocks and bedrock, specially in intertidal areas at near 19 m. They are found in water temperature ranges between 6ºC and 22ºC. They are able to survive rapid temperature fluctuations and rapid changes in salinity.

Predators

In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

it is preyed upon by the great blue heron (''Ardea herodias''), snowy egret (''Egretta thula'') and the

willet The willet (''Tringa semipalmata'') is a large shorebird in the family Scolopacidae. It is a relatively large and robust sandpiper, and is the largest of the species called "shanks" in the genus ''Tringa''. Its closest relative is the lesser yel ...

(''Tringa semipalmata'').

Feeding

The diet of this species includes mainly

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 can ...

s, especially

amphipods Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far describ ...

, as well as fish eggs and

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. ...

polychaete Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made ...

s, and

molluscs Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is estim ...

. Most of its food items are light-colored or clear, suggesting that these are easiest for the fish to see against the dark background of its habitat.

Reproduction

Their reproduction is oviparous with internal

fertilization Fertilisation or fertilization (see spelling differences), also known as generative fertilisation, syngamy and impregnation, is the fusion of gametes to give rise to a new individual organism or offspring and initiate its development. Proce ...

and spawning occurs in shallow coastal waters. Each female lays several batches of 50 to 1,300 eggs multiple times per year. These have a size ranging between 12 to 25 mm, settling the larvae in the tide-pools. In a few months, they mature to a length of 50-60 mm in total.

Behavior

They are non-migratory species. They can

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

themselves due to their subtle changes in body color. Their mottled specks are green, greenish-black, greenish-brown and reddish covering their body as well as their fins. The fins are also colored according to their body color patterned with light thin bands.

Supplementary information

They are harmless to humans. The population dynamics of ''Clinocottus analis'' is highly seasonal. In general, growth and fertility peak from early spring to summer. However, survival is not seasonal. This fish has green

blood plasma Blood plasma is a light amber-colored liquid component of blood in which blood cells are absent, but contains proteins and other constituents of whole blood in suspension. It makes up about 55% of the body's total blood volume. It is the intr ...

, the color caused by

biliverdin Biliverdin (latin for green bile) is a green tetrapyrrolic bile pigment, and is a product of heme catabolism.Boron W, Boulpaep E. Medical Physiology: a cellular and molecular approach, 2005. 984-986. Elsevier Saunders, United States. It is the ...

tightly bound in protein complexes.

References

External links

Woolly Sculpin (''Clinocottus analis'').
Photo Gallery: Natural History of Orange County, California and Nearby Places. School of Biological Sciences. University of California, Irvine.