Bathypterois

Bathypterois
Mediterranean spiderfish (B. dubius)
Tripodfish (B. grallator)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Aulopiformes
Family: Ipnopidae
Genus: Bathypterois
Günther, 1878
Bathypterois dubius[1]

Bathypterois is a genus of deepsea tripod fishes. They are a diverse genus that belong to the greater family Ipnopidae and order Aulopiformes. They are distinguished by having two elongated pelvic fins and an elongated caudal fin, which allow them to move and stand on the ocean floor, much like a tripod, hence the common name.[2] Bathypterois are distributed worldwide with some particular species of the genus having specialized environmental niches, such as lower dissolved oxygen concentrations.[3] Bathypterois have a reduced eye size, highly specified extended fins, and a mouth adapted to filter feeding.[2] They are filter feeders whose main food source is benthopelagic planktonic calanoid copepods, but some variation is seen with maturity in secondary food sources.[4] Bathypterois use their three elongated fins for a wide range of motion from landing to standing on the ocean floor to catching prey, for which these fins serve as specialized perceptory organs.[2] Bathypterois have both male and female gonads at once making, them simultaneous hermaphrodites, whose gonads go through five stages of development following seasonal autumn spawning.[5]

Abyssal spiderfish, B. longipes
B. quadrifilis
  1. ^ "BOLD:AAF0023 | BOLDSYSTEMS". www.boldsystems.org. Retrieved 2020-10-31.
  2. ^ a b c Davis, Matthew P.; Chakrabarty, Prosanta (April 2011). "Tripodfish (Aulopiformes: Bathypterois ) locomotion and landing behaviour from video observation at bathypelagic depths in the Campos Basin of Brazil". Marine Biology Research. 7 (3): 297–303. doi:10.1080/17451000.2010.515231. S2CID 84354865.
  3. ^ Cruz-Acevedo, Edgar; Betancourt-Lozano, Miguel; Aguirre-Villaseñor, Hugo (23 September 2016). "Distribution of the deep-sea genus Bathypterois (Pisces: Ipnopidae) in the Eastern Central Pacific". Revista de Biología Tropical. 65 (1): 89–101. doi:10.15517/rbt.v65i1.23726. PMID 29466631.
  4. ^ Carrasson, Maite; Matallanas, Jesus (1 April 2001). "Feeding ecology of the Mediterranean spiderfish, Bathypterois mediterraneus (Pisces: Chlorophthalmidae), on the western Mediterranean slope". Fishery Bulletin. 99 (2): 266–274. S2CID 87007203. Gale A75434042.
  5. ^ Porcu, Cristina; Follesa, Maria Cristina; Grazioli, Eleonora; Deiana, Anna Maria; Cau, Angelo (June 2010). "Reproductive biology of a bathyal hermaphrodite fish, Bathypterois mediterraneus (Osteichthyes: Ipnopidae) from the south-eastern Sardinian Sea (central-western Mediterranean)". Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. 90 (4): 719–728. doi:10.1017/S0025315409991330. S2CID 86463241.