''Puck pinnata'', the mischievous dreamer, 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 ...

Oneirodidae Oneirodidae, the dreamers are a family of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Lophiiformes, the anglerfishes. These fishes are deepwater fishes found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, and it is the most diverse family of f ...

, the dreamers, a family of deep-sea

anglerfish The anglerfish are ray-finned fish in the order Lophiiformes (). Both the order's common name, common and scientific name comes from the characteristic mode of predation, in which a modified dorsal Fish fin#Ray-fins, fin ray acts as a Aggressiv ...

es. This species is known from four metamorphosed female specimens each collected from four separate locations, three in the Pacific Ocean and one in the Atlantic Ocean. As with all other species in the family, it is a pelagic, deep-water fish that is a member of the abyssal ecosystem. It is the only known species 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 ...

''Puck''.

Taxonomy

''Puck pinnata'' was first formally described in 1978 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 ...

Theodore Wells Pietsch III Theodore Wells Pietsch III (born March 6, 1945) is an American systematist and evolutionary biologist especially known for his studies of anglerfishes. Pietsch has described 72 species and 14 genera of fishes and published numerous scientific pa ...

with its type locality given as the Northwestern Pacific Ocean at 38°16'N, 152°34'E from a depth of . Pietsch classified this new species in the new genus ''Puck''. In his description Pietsch noted that this species appeared to be one of the more derived species in the family Oneirodidae having a long lobe to the

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 ...

, a feature shared with the genera '' Ctenochirichthys'', '' Chirophryne'' and '' Leptacanthichthys'', with ''Ctenochirichthys'' being the most closely related taxon to this one. 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 this genus in the family Oneirodidae in 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 ...

Ceratioidei Ceratioidei, the deep-sea anglerfishes or pelagic anglerfishes, is a suborder of marine ray-finned fishes, one of five suborders in the order Lophiiformes, the anglerfishes. These fishes are found in tropical and temperate seas throughout the wor ...

of 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 ...

Lophiiformes The anglerfish are ray-finned fish in the order Lophiiformes (). Both the order's common and scientific name comes from the characteristic mode of predation, in which a modified dorsal fin ray acts as a lure for prey (akin to a human angler, ...

Etymology

''Puck pinnata'' is the only species in the genus ''Puck''. Pietsch described the figure of Puck from

Germanic folklore Proto-Germanic paganism was the beliefs of the speakers of Proto-Germanic and includes topics such as the Germanic mythology, legendry, and folk beliefs of early Germanic culture. By way of the comparative method, Germanic philologists, a variety ...

as "a minor order of mischievous devils, sprites, goblins or demons; a devilish trickster". Pietsch has since confirmed that he used the name because this taxon is a "devil", because it is a member of a group of

bathypelagic The bathypelagic zone or bathyal zone (from Greek βαθύς (bathýs), deep) is the part of the open ocean that extends from a depth of below the ocean surface. It lies between the mesopelagic above and the abyssopelagic below. The bathypela ...

and

mesopelagic The mesopelagic zone (Greek language, Greek μέσον, middle), also known as the middle pelagic or twilight zone, is the part of the pelagic zone that lies between the photic epipelagic and the aphotic bathypelagic zones. It is defined by light ...

anglerfishes The anglerfish are ray-finned fish in the order Lophiiformes (). Both the order's common and scientific name comes from the characteristic mode of predation, in which a modified dorsal fin ray acts as a lure for prey (akin to a human angler, ...

colloquially referred to as sea devils or black seadevils. He also said that it was a "trickster" because it is an ambush predator, waiting in the absulote darkness of the deep and lures in prey with

bioluminescent Bioluminescence is the emission of light during a chemiluminescence reaction by living organisms. Bioluminescence occurs in multifarious organisms ranging from marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some fungi, microorganisms inc ...

bait. The

Specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, ''pinnata'', means "plumed" or "winged", an allusion to the long, thin pectoral fins.

Description

''Puck pinnata'' is known only from

metamorphosed Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causi ...

females. They are distnighuished from most other taxa within Oneirodidae by the length of the pectoral fin lobe which is a similar to the lobes in ''Ctenochirichthys'', ''Chirophryne'' and ''Leptacanthichthys''. This species is separated from these taxa in the possession of a short snout, highly convex

frontal bone In the human skull, the frontal bone or sincipital bone is an unpaired bone which consists of two portions.'' Gray's Anatomy'' (1918) These are the vertically oriented squamous part, and the horizontally oriented orbital part, making up the bo ...

s and oblique suspeniosn of the mandible. It has a short, broad mouth, a feature which separates it from ''Chirophryne'' and ''Leptacanthichthys'' while the possession of robust spines on the sphenotic and angular bones separates it from ''Ctenochirichthys''. The longest of the 4 known specimens had a length of .

Distribution and habitat

''Puck pinnata'' has been recorded from four widely separated localities. These are the type locality as well as in the eastern tropical Pacific at about 6°N, 88°W, off the Galapagos Islands and in the northeastern Atlantic at about 35°N, 32°W. A report from off the

Bōsō Peninsula The is a peninsula that encompasses the entirety of Chiba Prefecture on Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It is part of the Greater Tokyo Area. It forms the eastern edge of Tokyo Bay, separating it from the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula covers ...

of Japan needs to be verified. The 4 known specimens, all females, were taken were caught in nets at depths between .

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q2854593, from2=Q14228524 Oneirodidae Taxa named by Theodore Wells Pietsch III Fish described in 1978