Pegasidae — Details

Seamoths learn more about names for this taxon

Wikipedia

Pegasidae

Learn more about this article

This article is about a scientific family of fishes. For the mythological Greek nymphs, see Pegasides.

The seamoths are a family, the Pegasidae, of fish found in coastal tropical waters.

They are distinguished by flattened bodies, the presence of large, wing-like, pectoral fins, and a body encased in thick, bony plates. Most species also have an elongated snout in front of their jaws. Their pelvic fins are also modified, allowing them to "walk" across the sea bottom where they live. Their jaws are highly specialised, and can form a tube-like mouth used to suck worms and other small animals from their burrows.[1]

Species

The family contains two genera and five species.

Family Pegasidae

References

  1. ^ Orr, J.W. & Pietsch, T.W. (1998). Paxton, J.R. & Eschmeyer, W.N.. ed. Encyclopedia of Fishes. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 171. ISBN 0-12-547665-5. 
  • Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). "Pegasidae" in FishBase. October 2006 version.


Stub iconThis Gasterosteiformes-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

 

Source: Wikipedia

Unreviewed

Article rating from 0 people

Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Comment on or rate this article

Disclaimer

EOL content is automatically assembled from many different content providers. As a result, from time to time you may find pages on EOL that are confusing.

To request an improvement, please leave a comment on the page. Thank you!