The painted greenling (''Oxylebius pictus'') is a species of marine

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

belonging to 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 ...

Zaniolepididae The Zaniolepididae is a Family (biology), family of marine ray-finned fishes classified within the suborder Cottoidei of the Order (biology), order Perciformes. They are found in the North Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy ''Zaniolepididae'' was first pro ...

, which includes this species and the combfishes. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the northeast

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. It is the only species in the genus ''Oxylebius''.

Taxonomy

The painted greenling was first formally described in 1862 by the American

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

Theodore Gill Theodore Nicholas Gill (March 21, 1837 – September 25, 1914) was an American ichthyologist, mammalogist, malacologist, and librarian. Career Born and educated in New York City under private tutors, Gill early showed interest in natural hist ...

with the type locality given as

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Gill classified it in the

monospecific genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

''Oxylebius'' and proposed the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Oxylebinae which was placed in the family

Hexagrammidae Hexagrammidae, the greenlings, is a Family (biology), family of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the suborder Cottoidei in the Order (biology), order Perciformes. These fishes are found in the North Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy Hexagrammidae wa ...

, although the subfamily was placed in the Zaniolepididae in the 6th 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 ...

'' and other authorities.

Etymology

The painted greenling's generic name ''Oxylebius'' prefixes ''oxy'' meaning "sharp", alluding to the sharper snout of this species in comparison to ''

Zaniolepis ''Zaniolepis'', the combfishes, is a genus of marine ray-finned fish, it is one of two genera in the family Zaniolepididae. These fishes are native to the eastern Pacific Ocean. ''Z. frenata'' that was a source of food to the Native American in ...

'', to ''lebius'' which Gill did not explain. However

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

and Evermann gave their view that ''lebius'' is a

Synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of '' Hexagrammos'' and is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

word for a fish small enough to be cooked in a kettle. The specific name, ''pictus'', means "painted" and is an allusion to the vertical banding of the body.

Description

The painted greenling has an elongated, compressed body and a long head with a pointed snout. There are 16 spines and between 14 and 16 soft rays in its

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 ...

with 3 or 4 spines and 12 or 13 soft rays in 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 ...

. The soft rayed part of the dorsal fin is higher than the spiny part. The

caudal 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 only ...

is slightly rounded, there is an incision in the anal fin between the spines and the soft rays and the

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 ...

is moderately long, not reaching the

anus In mammals, invertebrates and most fish, the anus (: anuses or ani; from Latin, 'ring' or 'circle') is the external body orifice at the ''exit'' end of the digestive tract (bowel), i.e. the opposite end from the mouth. Its function is to facil ...

. The head is scaled and there is a single cirrus above each eye and a pair at the back of the head. The overall colour is grayish brown broken by between five and seven broad, clear red or reddish brown bars on the flanks and these reach onto the fins. In breeding males these bars are lost. A few fish are all dark marked with white spots. Three dark bars radiate out from the eyes, one towards the snout and two back towards the nape. There are dark spots on the throat and on the caudal, pectoral, and pelvic fins.

Distribution and habitat

The painted greenling is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean where it is found from

Kodiak Island Kodiak Island (, ) is a large island on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. The largest island in the Kodiak Archipelago, Kodiak Island is the second largest island in the Un ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

to central

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

. Here it inhabits rocky areas shallower than .

Biology

Painted greenlings live in pairs or as solitary individuals. They guard their eggs and will even confront divers if they approach the cluster of orange eggs. Specimens (mainly juveniles) sometimes gain protection from larger predators by living among the tentacles of '' Cribrinopsis albopunctata'' or '' Urticina piscivora'' sea anemones, which are venomous to other animals but do not harm the painted greenling.Cowles, D. (2005).
Urticina piscivora (Sebens and Laakso, 1977).
'' Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory. Retrieved 29 January 2015. The painted greenling feeds on

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 ...

polychaetes Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are m ...

, small

mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

s and bryozoans.

References

External links

* {{Authority control painted greenling Western North American coastal fauna painted greenling