''Dactyloptena orientalis'', known commonly as the Oriental flying gurnard or purple flying gurnard among other vernacular names, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of marine

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Dactylopteridae The flying gurnards are a family, Dactylopteridae, of marine fish notable for their greatly enlarged pectoral fins. As they cannot literally fly or glide in the air (like flying fish), an alternative name preferred by some authors is helmet gurn ...

. Their name is derived from the French word 'gurnard' meaning to grunt, for the grunting sound this fish makes.

Description

The oriental flying gurnard can grow to in length but its common size is about . It has a broad head with a blunt snout and the eyes are set a long way apart. It has a heavily armoured robust body. The dorsal fin has seven spines and nine soft rays while the anal fin has no spines and six to seven soft rays. The huge, rounded

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

s having many dark spots and wavy streaks and a bright blue edge. Each ray has a feeler-like extension on the tip. This fish is well camouflaged with a grayish brown base color with dark brown or black markings on its head and body. ''Dactyloptena orientalis'' (Cuvier, 1829): Oriental flying gurnard
FishBase

Distribution and habitat

The Oriental flying gurnard is widespread throughout the

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

waters of the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

region including the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

. Its range extends from the coasts of East Africa to Polynesia and the western, northern and eastern coasts of Australia. It is found on the seabed in bays and estuaries and sandy areas, most often at depths of about but sometimes as deep as .

Behavior

The pectoral fins are normally held against the body, but when threatened the fins are expanded to startle potential

predators Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

which may include sea breams and

mackerel Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. ...

. The flying gurnard uses its

pelvic fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral (belly) surface of fish, and are the lower of the only two sets of paired fins (the other being the laterally positioned pectoral fins). The pelvic fins are homologous to the hi ...

s to walk along the bottom of the ocean. The oriental flying gurnard feeds on small bony fish,

bivalve Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of aquatic animal, aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed b ...

s, and

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

s.Fischer, W., I. Sousa, C. Silva, A. de Freitas, J.M. Poutiers, W. Schneider, T.C. Borges, J.P. Feral and A. Massinga, 1990. Fichas FAO de identificaçao de espécies para actividades de pesca. Guia de campo das espécies comerciais marinhas e de águas salobras de Moçambique. Publicaçao preparada em collaboraçao com o Instituto de Investigaçao Pesquiera de Moçambique, com financiamento do Projecto PNUD/FAO MOZ/86/030 e de NORAD. Roma, FAO. 1990. 424 p.

Gallery

Image:Daori_u0.png, Digital side-view illustration with expanded pectoral fin. Image:Dactyloptena orientalis (Oriental flying gurnard).gif, Oriental flying gurnard, top view drawing Image:SemiHB.jpg, Side view showing "walking" with pectoral fins against body File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.ART.188 - Dactyloptena orientalis (Cuvier) - Kawahara Keiga - 1823 - 1829 - Siebold Collection - pencil drawing - water colour.jpeg, Dactyloptena orientalis by Kawahara Keiga, 1823-1829

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1582612 Dactylopteridae Taxa named by Georges Cuvier Fish described in 1829 Fish of Hawaii