Bony-eared assfish

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Bony-eared assfish
Temporal range: Holocene
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Acanthonus armatus.jpg

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Ophidiiformes
Family: Ophidiidae
Subfamily: Neobythitinae
Genus: Acanthonus
Günther, 1878
Species:
A. armatus
Binomial name
Acanthonus armatus

The bony-eared assfish (Acanthonus armatus) is a bathypelagic species of cusk-eel found in tropical and sub-tropical oceans at depths of from 1,171 to 4,415 metres (3,842 to 14,485 ft). It has been found as far north as Queen Charlotte Sound off British Columbia's coast.[3] This species grows to a length of 37.5 centimetres (14.8 in) SL. It is the only known member of its genus Acanthonus.[4]

The bony-eared assfish may have the smallest brain-to-body weight ratio of all vertebrates.[5]

Like many other creatures that dwell in the depths of the sea, assfish are soft and flabby with a light skeleton. This is likely to have resulted from a lack of food and the high pressures which accompany living at such a depth, making it difficult to generate muscle and bone.[6]

Etymology[]

The type specimen was an 11.5 inch (29.2 cm) individual taken by the Challenger expedition (1872-1876) north of New Guinea at a depth of 1075 fathoms (6450 ft). It was described in 1878 by German ichthyologist Albert Günther, who gave the species its scientific name.[2] Armatus means "armed" in Latin, likely chosen because the fish sports spines off the tip of the nose and the gills. This also perhaps accounts for the "bony-eared" part, according to Gavin Hanke, curator of vertebrate zoology at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, British Columbia. Akanthos is Greek for "prickly", and onus could either mean "hake, a relative of cod", Hanke says, "or a donkey". Adam Summers, associate director at the Friday Harbor Laboratories at the University of Washington, concurs, saying onus could easily read "as a homonym of the Greek word for ass".[6]

References[]

  1. ^ Knudsen, S. (2015). "Acanthonus armatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2015: e.T190201A60796787. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-4.RLTS.T190201A60796787.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b Günther, Albert (1878). "Preliminary Notices of Deep-Sea Fishes collected during the Voyange of H.M.S. 'Challenger'". The Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 2 (7): 22–23.
  3. ^ Fuhrmann, Mike (14 January 2016). "Assfish goes on display at the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria". CBC News. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  4. ^ Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2014). "Acanthonus armatus" in FishBase. January 2014 version.
  5. ^ Fine, M. L.; Horn, M. H.; Cox, B. (23 March 1987). "Acanthonus armatus, a deep-sea teleost fish with a minute brain and large ears". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 230 (1259): 257–265. doi:10.1098/rspb.1987.0018. ISSN 0080-4649. JSTOR 36061. PMID 2884671. S2CID 19183523.
  6. ^ a b Langley, Liz (2016-03-12). "What'd You Call Me? Meet the Bony-Eared Assfish". National Geographic. Retrieved 23 February 2017.

Further reading[]

  • Günther, Albert (1887). "Acanthonus armatus". Report on the Deep-Sea Fishes collected by H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-1876. Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873–76. Zoology—Vol. XXII. pp. 117–118.


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