The stargazing stonefish (''Trachicephalus uranoscopus'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of 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 the appropriate s ...

stonefish ''Synanceia'' is a genus of ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Synanceiinae, the stonefishes, which is classified within the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and relatives. Stonefishes are venomous, dangerous, and fatal to huma ...

native to the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

and the western

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

where it is found on muddy bottoms in

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

. This venomous species is also a minor component of local

commercial fisheries Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

. This species grows to a length of SL. This species is the only known member of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

''Trachicephalus''.

Taxonomy

The stargazing stonefish was first formally described in 1801 as ''Synanceia uranoscopa'' by the German naturalists

Marcus Elieser Bloch Marcus Elieser Bloch (1723–1799) was a German physician and naturalist who is best known for his contribution to ichthyology through his multi-volume catalog of plates illustrating the fishes of the world. Brought up in a Hebrew-speaking Jewish ...

and

Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider (18 January 1750 – 12 January 1822) was a German classicist and naturalist. Biography Schneider was born at Collm in Saxony. In 1774, on the recommendation of Christian Gottlob Heine, he became secretary to ...

with the type locality given as

Tranquebar Tharangambadi (), formerly Tranquebar ( da, Trankebar, ), is a town in the Mayiladuthurai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Coast. It lies north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary named Uppanar of the Kave ...

in India. In 1839

William John Swainson William John Swainson FLS, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, malacologist, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swainson was born in Dover Place, St Mary Newington, London, the eldest son of ...

placed ''S. uranscopa'' in the new

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 "unispec ...

genus ''Trachicephalus''. The genus ''Trachicephalus'' is classified within the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...

Synanceiini Synanceiini commonly known as stonefishes, is a tribe of venomous ray-finned fishes classified within the subfamily Synanceiinae, the stonefishes, part of the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and their relatives. These fishes are found ...

which is one of three tribes in the subfamily Synanceeinae within the family Scorpaenidae. However, other authorities regard Synanceiidae as a valid family and the Synanceiini as the subfamily Synanceiinae. The genus name combines ''

Trachinus ''Trachinus'' is a genus of weevers, order Perciformes that consists of seven extant species. Six of the genus representatives inhabit the waters of Eastern Atlantic Ocean, but only one, '' Trachinus cornutus'', inhabits the South-Eastern Pacifi ...

'', the

weeverfish Weevers (or weeverfish) are nine extant species of fishes of family Trachinidae, order Trachiniformes, part of the Percomorpha clade. They are long (up to 37 cm), mainly brown in color, and have venomous spines on their first dorsal fin ...

genus with ''cephalus'', which means “head”, a reference to the species similarity to those fishes. 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 ...

''uranscopus'' means “skywatcher”, a reference to the upward directed eyes of this fish.

Description

The stargazing stonefish has an elongate body with an upturned, almost vertical mouth. The upwards directed eyes are on the dorsal surface of the depressed head which has no deep pits. There are weakly developed spines on the head with 2 or 3 short spines on the lacrimal boneand there are 4 blunt spines on the

preoperculum This glossary of ichthyology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in ichthyology, the study of fishes. A B C ...

. The

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

has 11-13 spines and 12-14 soft rays while the

anal 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 se ...

has 2 spines and 12-15 soft rays. The pectoral fin has 14-15 fin rays with the lower rays not being separated from the upper rays. AAll of the soft fin rays are simple, i.e. not branched.There are teeth on the jaws and the

vomer The vomer (; lat, vomer, lit=ploughshare) is one of the unpaired facial bones of the skull. It is located in the midsagittal line, and articulates with the sphenoid, the ethmoid, the left and right palatine bones, and the left and right maxill ...

, but no teeth on the

palatines Palatines (german: Pfälzer), also known as the Palatine Dutch, are the people and princes of Palatinates ( Holy Roman principalities) of the Holy Roman Empire. The Palatine diaspora includes the Pennsylvania Dutch and New York Dutch. In 1709 ...

. There is and indistinct

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 ...

, which sits high on the body. The head, body and fins are greyish to blackish in colour, marked with ill-defined whitish spots or blotches scattered on the sides and the pectoral and

caudal 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 se ...

s, as well as on the base of the anal fin. The outer margins of the soft-rayed parts of the dorsal and anal fins are yellowish white and the rear margin of the caudal fin is white. The maximum recorded total length of this species is .

Distribution and habitat

The stargazing stonefish has a distribution which extends from India eastward through the

Strait of Malacca The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...

, then northward along the eastern coasts of Malaysia and Thailand to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

and southern China. It has also been reported to extend east into Indonesia and eastern Australia. This demersal species is found in shallow waters at depths between on muddy and sandy substrates in estuarine and coastal waters.

Utilisation

The stargazing stonefish is, despite its venom bearing spines, sold locally in fish markets.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3793287 Synanceiini Fish described in 1801 Taxa named by William John Swainson Taxa named by Marcus Elieser Bloch Taxa named by Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider