Peristediidae, the armored sea robins or armoured gurnards, is a

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 ...

ray-finned fishes Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class (biology), class of Osteichthyes, bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built ...

belonging to the

suborder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized ...

Platycephaloidei Platycephaloidei is a suborder of ray-finned fishes, part of the Order (biology), order Scorpaeniformes, and includes the Platycephalidae, flatheads, ghost flatheads and Triglidae, sea robins. Taxonomy Platycephaloidei was first recognised and n ...

in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Scorpaeniformes The Scorpaeniformes are a diverse Order (biology), order of Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish, including the lionfishes and sculpins, but have also been called the Scleroparei. It is one of the five largest orders of bony fishes by number of spec ...

. They are found in the deep water in the tropical and warm temperate of the world's oceans.

Taxonomy

Peristediidae was first proposed as a family in 1883 by the American

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Universi ...

and

Charles Henry Gilbert Charles Henry Gilbert (December 5, 1859 in Rockford, Illinois – April 20, 1928 in Palo Alto, California) was a pioneer ichthyologist and Fisheries science, fishery biologist of particular significance to natural history of the western Unit ...

. The 5th edition of ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' is a standard reference for the systematics of fishes. It was first written in 1976 by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011). Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of t ...

'' classifies the family within the Platycephaloidei, which is a suborder of the order Scorpaeniformes. Other authorities differ and do not consider the Scorpaeniformes to be a valid order because the

Perciformes Perciformes (), also called the Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish in the clade Percomorpha. ''Perciformes'' means " perch-like". Among the well-known members of this group are perches and darters ( Percidae), and als ...

is not

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

without the taxa within the Scorpaeniformes being included within it. These authorities consider the Peristediidae to belong to the suborder Triglioidei, along with the family

Triglidae ''Triglidae'', commonly known as gurnards or sea robins, are a Family (biology), family of bottom-feeding scorpaeniform ray-finned fish. The gurnards are distributed in temperate and tropical seas worldwide. Taxonomy ''Triglidae'' was first des ...

, within the Perciformes. The family Peristediidae is included in the Triglidae as the subfamily Peristediinae by some authorities.

Genera

The family Peristediidae is classified into about 45 species in 6 genera: * '' Gargariscus'' H. M. Smith, 1917 * ''

Heminodus ''Heminodus'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Peristediidae, the armoured gurnards or armored sea robins. It is currently considered to be a monotypic genus, its only species being ''Heminodus philippinus''. Taxonomy ...

'' H. M. Smith, 1917 * ''

Paraheminodus ''Paraheminodus'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Peristediidae, the armoured gurnards or armored searobins. These fishes are found in the western Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy ''Paraheminodus'' was first described as a ge ...

'' Kamohara, 1958 * ''

Peristedion ''Peristedion'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Peristediidae, the armoured gurnards or armored sea robins. These fishes are found in Atlantic and Indo-West Pacific ocean waters. Taxonomy Peristedion was first des ...

'' Lacépède, 1801 * ''

Satyrichthys ''Satyrichthys'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Peristediidae, the armoured gurnards or armored searobins. These fishes are found in the Indo-Pacific region. Taxonomy ''Satyrichthys'' was first described as a monoty ...

'' Kaup, 1873 * ''

Scalicus ''Scalicus'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Peristediidae, the armoured gurnards or armored searobins. These fishes are found in the Indo-Pacific region. Taxonomy ''Scalicus'' was first described as a monotypic gen ...

'' Jordan, 1923 Taxonomists working on the armoured gurnards have found that the family is

and that it divides into two

clades In biology, a clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach to taxonomy ...

, one consisting of only the genus ''Peristedion'' and the other 5 genera making up the other clade.

Etymology

Peristediidae takes its name from the genus ''Peristedion'' which is a combination of ''peri'', meaning "around", and ''stedion'', which is a diminutive of ''stethos'', which is Greek for "breast" or "chest", an allusion to the bony plates lining the underside of the body, similar to a

plastron The turtle shell is a shield for the ventral and dorsal parts of turtles (the Order (biology), order Testudines), completely enclosing all the turtle's vital organs and in some cases even the head. It is constructed of modified bony elements such ...

, the feature Lacépède use to distinguish ''Peristidion'' from ''

Trigla The piper gurnard (''Trigla lyra''), also known as the piper or the lyre gurnard, is a species of marine, demersal ray-finned fish from the family Triglidae, the gurnards and sea robins. It is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterran ...

''.

Characteristics

Peristediidae fishes have the body encased in 4 rows of thick scutes, each plate is spined, on each side of the body. The mouth is under the snout with barbels on the lower jaw. Each of the preorbitals have a forward pointing projection. There are no scales on the head and body. The head is large and bony with numerous spines and ridges with a wide snout which is flattened on the top and bottom. They have no teeth and usually no tongue, although where there is a tongue it is simple and forked. There are two separate

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

s; the first contains between 7 and 9 spines while the second has between 16 and 23 segmented soft rays. The

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

contains between 16 and 23 soft rays. The pectoral fins are short with joined rays and the lower 2 are free from the membrane. The swimbladder has one lobe. The smallest species in the family is ''

Peristedion paucibarbiger ''Peristedion'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family (biology), family Peristediidae, the armoured gurnards or armored sea robins. These fishes are found in Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic and Indo-West Pacific ocean waters. T ...

'' which has a maximum published

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of fish anatomy, their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is ...

of while the largest species is the black-finned armoured-gurnard (''Satyrichthys moluccensis'') which has a maximum standard length of .

Distribution and habitat

Peristediidae fishes are found in the warmer waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. These fishes are found on

continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' (album), an album by Saint Etienne * Continen ...

or insular slopes, typically at depths greater than .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q687649 Ray-finned fish families Taxa named by David Starr Jordan Taxa named by Charles Henry Gilbert