Prowfish (Zaprora Silenus) on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The prowfish (''Zaprora silenus'') is a species of scorpaeniform marine fish found in the northern Pacific Ocean. It is the only 
Growing to a length of , prowfish have stout, laterally compressed and elongated bodies. They have single, somewhat high dorsal fin running nearly the entire length of the back; it may contain 54–58 pliable spines. The anal fin is also fairly extensive. The tail fin is large, rounded and truncated; the pectoral fins are enlarged and pelvic fins are conspicuously absent. The mouth is slightly upturned with small, closely set, sharp teeth confined to the jaws. The head is convex, ending in a projecting snout. This explains the family name Zaproridae; from the Greek ''za'', an intensifier, and ''prora'' meaning "prow". The species name ''silneus'' is a reference to Silenus, a figure in Greek mythology.
The distinctive head of the prowfish also features a number of sensory pores made all the more obvious by fringes of blue or white. Prowfish have small ctenoid scales and a variable coloration; typically, they are bluish-grey to olive brown with small dark spots, grading to lighter shades ventrally. The
ImageSize = width:1000px height:auto barincrement:15px
PlotArea = left:10px bottom:50px top:10px right:10px
Period = from:-65.5 till:10
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:-65.5
ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:-65.5
TimeAxis = orientation:hor
AlignBars = justify
Colors =
#legends
id:CAR value:claret
id:ANK value:rgb(0.4,0.3,0.196)
id:HER value:teal
id:HAD value:green
id:OMN value:blue
id:black value:black
id:white value:white
id:cenozoic value:rgb(0.54,0.54,0.258)
id:paleogene value:rgb(0.99,0.6,0.32)
id:paleocene value:rgb(0.99,0.65,0.37)
id:eocene value:rgb(0.99,0.71,0.42)
id:oligocene value:rgb(0.99,0.75,0.48)
id:neogene value:rgb(0.999999,0.9,0.1)
id:miocene value:rgb(0.999999,0.999999,0)
id:pliocene value:rgb(0.97,0.98,0.68)
id:quaternary value:rgb(0.98,0.98,0.5)
id:pleistocene value:rgb(0.999999,0.95,0.68)
id:holocene value:rgb(0.999,0.95,0.88)
BarData=
bar:eratop
bar:space
bar:periodtop
bar:space
bar:NAM1
bar:space
bar:period
bar:space
bar:era
PlotData=
align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25
shift:(7,-4)
bar:periodtop
from: -65.5 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text: Paleocene
from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text: Eocene
from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:
extant
Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to:
* Extant hereditary titles
* Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English
* Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, ...
member of the family, Zaproridae. Another species, ''Araeosteus rothi
''Araeosteus rothi'' is an extinct species of bony fish closely related to the modern-day prowfish, ''Zaprora silenus''. ''A. rothi'' is found in Late Miocene marine strata of Southern California, primarily the Diatom Beds of Lompoc and the San ...
'', is known from Late Miocene
The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...
marine strata in Southern California.
Prowfish range from the Aleutian Islands, Alaska west to Kamchatka, Russia; from Navarin Canyon
The Navarin Canyon is a submarine canyon in the Bering Sea. It is just as wide but less than half as deep as the Zhemchug Canyon, which is the largest canyon in the world.
The Navarin Canyon is the third-largest to cut through the Beringian margi ...
in the Bering Sea
The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Ameri ...
south to Hokkaidō
is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel.
The la ...
, Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and Monterey, California. An otherwise little-known species, prowfish are important to subsistence fisheries
Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...
in remote regions.
Growing to a length of , prowfish have stout, laterally compressed and elongated bodies. They have single, somewhat high dorsal fin running nearly the entire length of the back; it may contain 54–58 pliable spines. The anal fin is also fairly extensive. The tail fin is large, rounded and truncated; the pectoral fins are enlarged and pelvic fins are conspicuously absent. The mouth is slightly upturned with small, closely set, sharp teeth confined to the jaws. The head is convex, ending in a projecting snout. This explains the family name Zaproridae; from the Greek ''za'', an intensifier, and ''prora'' meaning "prow". The species name ''silneus'' is a reference to Silenus, a figure in Greek mythology.
The distinctive head of the prowfish also features a number of sensory pores made all the more obvious by fringes of blue or white. Prowfish have small ctenoid scales and a variable coloration; typically, they are bluish-grey to olive brown with small dark spots, grading to lighter shades ventrally. The lateral line
The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...
and swim bladder
The swim bladder, gas bladder, fish maw, or air bladder is an internal gas-filled Organ (anatomy), organ that contributes to the ability of many bony fish (but not cartilaginous fish) to control their buoyancy, and thus to stay at their curren ...
are absent.
left, 300px, Juvenile
Prowfish prefer rocky substrates and range from relatively shallow waters to . They are 
benthic
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...
animals spending most of their time on or near the bottom. Their diet consists principally of scyphozoa
The Scyphozoa are an exclusively marine class of the phylum Cnidaria, referred to as the true jellyfish (or "true jellies").
The class name Scyphozoa comes from the Greek word ''skyphos'' (), denoting a kind of drinking cup and alluding to the ...
ns and salps; prowfish use their large mouths to tear chunks from the bells of jellyfish and ctenophore
Ctenophora (; ctenophore ; ) comprise a phylum of marine invertebrates, commonly known as comb jellies, that inhabit sea waters worldwide. They are notable for the groups of cilia they use for swimming (commonly referred to as "combs"), and ...
s. Prowfish may also eat smaller fish and amphipod
Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descr ...
s; however, juveniles feed exclusively on jellyfish. Larger skates and Pacific halibut are known predators of prowfish.
Little is known of prowfish reproduction, but juveniles have been observed to be pelagic; unlike adults, they spend their time in the middle levels of the water column, closely associated with their jellyfish prey. Indeed, juvenile prowfish will seek shelter from prey within the bells of larger jellies. This behaviour has led to their confusion with the medusafish (''Icichthys lockingtoni'') of the family Centrolophidae. Most female prowfish are thought to reach maturity at around five years. There is little sexual dimorphism; females are slightly heavier for their length.
Timeline
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text: Miocene
from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Plio.
from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text: Pleist.
from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H.
bar:eratop
from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:Paleogene
The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...
from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:Neogene
The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...
from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text: Q.
PlotData=
align:left fontsize:M mark:(line,white) width:5 anchor:till align:left
color:miocene bar:NAM1 from: -11.608 till: 0 text: Araeosteus
''Araeosteus rothi'' is an extinct species of bony fish closely related to the modern-day prowfish, ''Zaprora silenus''. ''A. rothi'' is found in Late Miocene marine strata of Southern California, primarily the Diatom Beds of Lompoc and the S ...
PlotData=
align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25
bar:period
from: -65.5 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text: Paleocene
from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text: Eocene
from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text: Miocene
from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Plio.
from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text: Pleist.
from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H.
bar:era
from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:Paleogene
The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...
from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:Neogene
The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...
from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text: Q.
See also
* List of fish common names *List of fish families
This is a list of fish families sorted alphabetically by scientific name. There are 525 families in the list.
__NOTOC__
A - B - C - D - E - F -
G - H - I - J - K -
L - M - N - O - P - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z
- ...
References
* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q135033 Fish described in 1896