The flying gurnards are a family, Dactylopteridae, of marine fish notable for their greatly enlarged pectoral fins. As they cannot literally fly, an alternative name preferred by some authors is helmet gurnards.^[1] They are the only family in the suborder Dactylopteroidei.

They have been observed to "walk" along sandy sea floors while looking for crustaceans and other small invertebrates by using their pelvic fins. Like the true gurnards (sea robins), to which they may be related, they possess a swim bladder with two lobes and a "drumming muscle" that can beat against the swim bladder to produce sounds. They have heavy, protective, scales, and the undersides of their huge pectoral fins are brightly coloured, perhaps to startle predators.^[1]

Most species live in the Indo-Pacific, but at least one is native to the Atlantic. The adults live on the sea bottom, but many species have an extended larval stage, which floats freely in the oceans.^[1]

Taxonomy

Morphological traits uniting the flying gurnards (Dactylopteridae) and the Syngnathiformes have long been noted. Most authors however placed them with the Scorpaeniformes. How, DNA sequence data quite consistently support the view that the latter are paraphyletic with the Gasterosteiformes sensu lato. As it seems, flying gurnards are particularly close to Aulostomidae and Fistulariidae, and would have to be included with these.^[2]

Species

The family is small, with seven species in two genera.

• Genus Dactyloptena
  • Dactyloptena gilberti, Snyder, 1909
  • Spotwing flying gurnard, Dactyloptena macracantha (Bleeker, 1854)
  • Oriental flying gurnard, Dactyloptena orientalis (Cuvier, 1829)
  • Butterfly flying gurnard, Dactyloptena papilio Ogilby, 1910
  • Starry flying gurnard, Dactyloptena peterseni (Nyström, 1887)
  • Dactyloptena tiltoni, Eschmeyer, 1997
• Genus Dactylopterus
  • Flying gurnard, Dactylopterus volitans (Linnaeus, 1758)

• 

  Dactyloptena orientalis

• 

  Dactyloptena orientalis

• 

  Dactyloptena orientalis

• 

  Dactyloptena orientalis

• 

  Dactylopterus volitans

See also

• List of fish families