''Pristobrycon maculipinnis'', sometimes known as the marbled piranha, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

serrasalmid The Serrasalmidae (serrasalmids) are a family of characiform fishes, recently elevated to family status. It includes more than 90 species. The name means "serrated salmon family", which refers to the serrated keel running along the belly of th ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found els ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in ...

Habitat

''P. maculipinnis'' mainly inhabits

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

or clear

acidic In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a s ...

waters in the

Orinoco The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wo ...

basin in the state of

Amazonas Amazonas may refer to: Places * Amazon River, known as ''Amazonas'' in Spanish and Portuguese *Amazonas (Brazilian state), Brazil * Amazonas Department, Colombia * Department of Amazonas, Peru * Amazonas (Venezuelan state), Venezuela Other uses * ...

. Its type locality is a tributary of the Pamoni River in the

Casiquiare River The Casiquiare river () is a distributary of the upper Orinoco flowing southward into the Rio Negro, in Venezuela, South America. As such, it forms a unique natural canal between the Orinoco and Amazon river systems. It is the world's largest ...

Basin, although it can also be found in the

Atabapo River Atabapo River is a river of Venezuela and Colombia. It forms the international boundary between the two countries for much of its length. It is part of the Orinoco River basin. See also *List of rivers of Venezuela This is a list of rivers in V ...

basin.

Description

The body of ''P. maculipinnis'' is discoid to oval with the anterodorsal slightly convex. It has a robust and wide head with a blunt snout. Preanal spines and ectopterygoid teeth are not found on this species. It has a wide

adipose fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as s ...

. The head of the species is dark in color in adults with the

mandibular In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

and opercular areas dark red. The iris of the species is golden yellow with a dark transversal band. The body of ''P. maculipinnis'' is a metallic greyish color adorned with many dark spots, giving the species a marbled appearance, although the

abdominal The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso ...

area can be dark red or orange in color. The fins of the species are generally red or orange in color and may also display dark spots. The adipose fin of the species is dark with several spots. ''P. maculipinnis'' reaches 24.8 cm (9.8 inches) in

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

Behaviour

It is a predatory fish that consumes smaller fish and attacks fins, although the diet of juveniles includes aquatic

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

and

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

s such as shrimps. It is also known to eat

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...

originating from the surrounding

gallery forest A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate abov ...

. It is a solitary species that is typically not seen in schools.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3755051 Serrasalmidae Freshwater fish of South America Fish of Venezuela Endemic fauna of Venezuela Taxa named by William Lee Fink Taxa named by Antonio Machado-Allison Fish described in 1992