Pterycombus
Pterycombus is a genus of pomfret distinguished by greatly elongated dorsal and anal fins. Along with the genus Pteraclis, these fishes are commonly referred to as fanfishes. Pterycombus can be distinguished from Pteraclis by examining the dorsal and anal fin rays, which should be relatively uniform in thickness to neighboring rays and by a lack of scales anterior to the dorsal fin.[2]
Pterycombus | |
---|---|
Prickly Fanfish (Pterycombus petersii) | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Perciformes |
Family: | Bramidae |
Genus: | Pterycombus Fries, 1837 |
Type species | |
Pterycombus brama Fries, 1837[1] |
Species
Currently, there are two recognized species in this genus:[3]
- Pterycombus brama, Atlantic fanfish (Fries, 1837)
- Pterycombus petersii, prickly fanfish (Hilgendorf, 1878)
Species Distinction
Pterycombus brama can be distinguished from Pterycombus petersii by measuring the length of the longest dorsal and anal fin rays. In P. brama, the longest ray will be greater than half standard length, but will be less than half standard length in P. petersii.[4] These two species can also be distinguished by geographic location. P. brama is generally distributed throughout the North and Central Atlantic Ocean, while P. petersii inhabits Pacific waters from Southern Africa to the Indo-Pacific. However, P. petersii has recently been found in the eastern North Pacfic off the coast of Oregon,[5] suggesting that it may have a greater distribution throughout Pacific waters.
References
- Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Pterycombus". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
- B. F. Fries (1837). "Pterycombus, ett nytt fisk-slagte fran Ishafvet. — K. Svenska Vetenskaps". Akad. Handl: 14–22.
- Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2013). Species of Pterycombus in FishBase. February 2013 version.
- F. M. Hilgendorf (1878). "Über das Vorkommen einer Brama-Art und einer neuen Fischgattung Centropholis aus der Nachbarschaft des Genus Brama in den japanischen Meeren". Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin. 15: 1–2.
- J. W. Orr; V. Tuttle; C. Donovan (2018). "Pterycombus petersii (Bramidae: Teleostei): First Record for the Eastern North Atlantic". Northwestern Naturalist. 9 (3): 236–239.