28-456: See text The goatfishes are ray-finned fish of the family Mullidae , the only family in the suborder Mulloidei of the order Syngnathiformes . The family is also sometimes referred to as the red mullets , which also refers more narrowly to the genus Mullus . The family name and the English common name mullet derived from Latin mullus , the red mullet ; other than the red mullet and
56-509: A delicacy, but for aesthetic pleasure, since the fish assume a variety of colors and shades also during death. Therefore, it was paramount to serve the fish live and let them die before the eyes of the guests. Ray-finned fish Actinopterygii ( / ˌ æ k t ɪ n ɒ p t ə ˈ r ɪ dʒ i aɪ / ; from actino- 'having rays' and Ancient Greek πτέρυξ (ptérux) 'wing, fins'), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians ,
84-459: A free-swimming larval stage. However other patterns of ontogeny exist, with one of the commonest being sequential hermaphroditism . In most cases this involves protogyny , fish starting life as females and converting to males at some stage, triggered by some internal or external factor. Protandry , where a fish converts from male to female, is much less common than protogyny. Most families use external rather than internal fertilization . Of
112-742: A trait still present in Holostei ( bowfins and gars ). In some fish like the arapaima , the swim bladder has been modified for breathing air again, and in other lineages it have been completely lost. The teleosts have urinary and reproductive tracts that are fully separated, while the Chondrostei have common urogenital ducts, and partially connected ducts are found in Cladistia and Holostei. Ray-finned fishes have many different types of scales ; but all teleosts have leptoid scales . The outer part of these scales fan out with bony ridges, while
140-587: 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 skin supported by radially extended thin bony spines called lepidotrichia , as opposed to the bulkier, fleshy lobed fins of the sister class Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish). Resembling folding fans , the actinopterygian fins can easily change shape and wetted area , providing superior thrust-to-weight ratios per movement compared to sarcopterygian and chondrichthyian fins. The fin rays attach directly to
168-545: Is divided into the infraclasses Holostei and Teleostei . During the Mesozoic ( Triassic , Jurassic , Cretaceous ) and Cenozoic the teleosts in particular diversified widely. As a result, 96% of living fish species are teleosts (40% of all fish species belong to the teleost subgroup Acanthomorpha ), while all other groups of actinopterygians represent depauperate lineages. The classification of ray-finned fishes can be summarized as follows: The cladogram below shows
196-432: Is relatively rare and is found in about 6% of living teleost species; male care is far more common than female care. Male territoriality "preadapts" a species for evolving male parental care. There are a few examples of fish that self-fertilise. The mangrove rivulus is an amphibious, simultaneous hermaphrodite, producing both eggs and spawn and having internal fertilisation. This mode of reproduction may be related to
224-506: The Cyprinidae (in goldfish and common carp as recently as 14 million years ago). Ray-finned fish vary in size and shape, in their feeding specializations, and in the number and arrangement of their ray-fins. In nearly all ray-finned fish, the sexes are separate, and in most species the females spawn eggs that are fertilized externally, typically with the male inseminating the eggs after they are laid. Development then proceeds with
252-592: The deep sea to subterranean waters to the highest mountain streams . Extant species can range in size from Paedocypris , at 8 mm (0.3 in); to the massive ocean sunfish , at 2,300 kg (5,070 lb); and to the giant oarfish , at 11 m (36 ft). The largest ever known ray-finned fish, the extinct Leedsichthys from the Jurassic , has been estimated to have grown to 16.5 m (54 ft). Ray-finned fishes occur in many variant forms. The main features of typical ray-finned fish are shown in
280-541: The freckled goatfish ( Upeneus tragula ), enter estuaries and rivers , although not to any great extent. Goatfish are benthic feeders, using a pair of long chemosensory barbels (whiskers) protruding from their chins to feel through the sediments in search of prey. They feed on worms , crustaceans , molluscs and other small invertebrates . Other fish shadow the active goatfish, waiting patiently for any overlooked prey. For example, in Indonesia large schools of
308-459: The goldsaddle goatfish ( Parupeneus cyclostomus ) and moray eels hunt together. This behavior is known as shadow feeding or cooperative hunting. By day, many goatfish will form large schools of inactive (nonfeeding) fish; these aggregates may contain both conspecifics and heterospecifics. For example, the yellowfin goatfish ( Mulloidichthys vanicolensis ) is often seen congregating with bluestripe snappers ( Lutjanus kasmira ). All goatfish have
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#1732780263845336-488: The oviparous teleosts, most (79%) do not provide parental care. Viviparity , ovoviviparity , or some form of parental care for eggs, whether by the male, the female, or both parents is seen in a significant fraction (21%) of the 422 teleost families; no care is likely the ancestral condition. The oldest case of viviparity in ray-finned fish is found in Middle Triassic species of † Saurichthys . Viviparity
364-663: The sister lineage of all other actinopterygians, the Acipenseriformes (sturgeons and paddlefishes) are the sister lineage of Neopterygii, and Holostei (bowfin and gars) are the sister lineage of teleosts. The Elopomorpha ( eels and tarpons ) appear to be the most basal teleosts. The earliest known fossil actinopterygian is Andreolepis hedei , dating back 420 million years ( Late Silurian ), remains of which have been found in Russia , Sweden , and Estonia . Crown group actinopterygians most likely originated near
392-499: The striped red mullet or surmullet, the English word "mullet" generally refers to a different family of fish, the Mugilidae or gray mullets. Goatfish are characterized by two chin barbels (or goatee ), which contain chemosensory organs and are used to probe the sand or holes in the reef for food. Their bodies are deep and elongated, with forked tails and widely separated dorsal fins . The first dorsal fin has six to eight spines;
420-975: The Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. The earliest fossil relatives of modern teleosts are from the Triassic period ( Prohalecites , Pholidophorus ), although it is suspected that teleosts originated already during the Paleozoic Era . The listing below is a summary of all extinct (indicated by a dagger , †) and living groups of Actinopterygii with their respective taxonomic rank . The taxonomy follows Phylogenetic Classification of Bony Fishes with notes when this differs from Nelson, ITIS and FishBase and extinct groups from Van der Laan 2016 and Xu 2021. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Plankton Too Many Requests If you report this error to
448-480: The Mullidae: Goatfish are distributed worldwide in tropical, subtropical, and temperate waters, in a range of habitats. Most species are associated with the bottom of the littoral , but some species of Upeneus can be deep; for example, the goatfish Upeneus davidaromi can be found at depths of 500 metres (1,600 ft). Tropical goatfish live in association with coral reefs. Some species, such as
476-508: The ability to change their coloration depending on their current activity. One notable example, the diurnal goldsaddle goatfish ( Parupeneus cyclostomus ) can change from a lemon-yellow to a pale cream whilst feeding. Goatfish have the ability to rapidly change color, and many species adopt a pale coloration when resting on the sand to blend with the background and become less visible to predators. These changes in color are reversible phenotypic changes and happen within seconds, many times during
504-402: The adjacent diagram. The swim bladder is a more derived structure and used for buoyancy . Except from the bichirs , which just like the lungs of lobe-finned fish have retained the ancestral condition of ventral budding from the foregut , the swim bladder in ray-finned fishes derives from a dorsal bud above the foregut. In early forms the swim bladder could still be used for breathing,
532-463: The bichirs and holosteans (bowfin and gars) in having gone through a whole-genome duplication ( paleopolyploidy ). The WGD is estimated to have happened about 320 million years ago in the teleosts, which on average has retained about 17% of the gene duplicates, and around 180 (124–225) million years ago in the chondrosteans. It has since happened again in some teleost lineages, like Salmonidae (80–100 million years ago) and several times independently within
560-706: The different actinopterygian clades (in millions of years , mya) are from Near et al., 2012. Jaw-less fishes ( hagfish , lampreys ) [REDACTED] Cartilaginous fishes ( sharks , rays , ratfish ) [REDACTED] Coelacanths [REDACTED] Lungfish [REDACTED] Amphibians [REDACTED] Mammals [REDACTED] Sauropsids ( reptiles , birds ) [REDACTED] Polypteriformes ( bichirs , reedfishes ) [REDACTED] Acipenseriformes ( sturgeons , paddlefishes ) [REDACTED] Teleostei [REDACTED] Amiiformes ( bowfins ) [REDACTED] Lepisosteiformes ( gars ) [REDACTED] The polypterids (bichirs and reedfish) are
588-432: The fish's habit of spending long periods out of water in the mangrove forests it inhabits. Males are occasionally produced at temperatures below 19 °C (66 °F) and can fertilise eggs that are then spawned by the female. This maintains genetic variability in a species that is otherwise highly inbred. Actinopterygii is divided into the subclasses Cladistia , Chondrostei and Neopterygii . The Neopterygii , in turn,
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#1732780263845616-399: The formation of association with other species. Most species reach reproductive maturity after 1–2 years. Goatfish species are an important fishery in many areas of the world and some species are economically important. In ancient Rome until the end of the second century BCE, two species of goatfish ( Mullus barbatus and Mullus surmuletus ) were highly sought-after and expensive, not as
644-438: The inner part is crossed with fibrous connective tissue. Leptoid scales are thinner and more transparent than other types of scales, and lack the hardened enamel - or dentine -like layers found in the scales of many other fish. Unlike ganoid scales , which are found in non-teleost actinopterygians, new scales are added in concentric layers as the fish grows. Teleosts and chondrosteans (sturgeons and paddlefish) also differ from
672-418: The lifespan of an individual. Two species, the mimic goatfish ( Mulloidichthys mimicus ) and Ayliffe's goatfish ( Mulloidichthys ayliffe ) have evolved to mimic the blue-striped snapper ( Lutjanus kasmira ), with which they often form schools. These are slow, genetic changes that have occurred during their evolution over many generations. Goatfish are pelagic spawners; they release many buoyant eggs into
700-466: The main clades of living actinopterygians and their evolutionary relationships to other extant groups of fishes and the four-limbed vertebrates ( tetrapods ). The latter include mostly terrestrial species but also groups that became secondarily aquatic (e.g. whales and dolphins ). Tetrapods evolved from a group of bony fish during the Devonian period . Approximate divergence dates for
728-494: The proximal or basal skeletal elements, the radials, which represent the articulation between these fins and the internal skeleton (e.g., pelvic and pectoral girdles). The vast majority of actinopterygians are teleosts . By species count, they dominate the subphylum Vertebrata , and constitute nearly 99% of the over 30,000 extant species of fish . They are the most abundant nektonic aquatic animals and are ubiquitous throughout freshwater and marine environments from
756-478: The second dorsal has one spine and 8–9 soft rays, shorter than anal fin. There are one or two spines in the anal fin with five to eight soft rays. They have 24 vertebrae. Many goatfish are brightly colored. The largest species, the dash-and-dot goatfish ( Parupeneus barberinus ), grows to 60 cm (24 in) in length; most species are less than half this size. Within the family are six genera and about 86 species . These genera are classified as belonging to
784-567: The water, which become part of the plankton . The eggs float freely with the currents until hatching. The larvae drift in oceanic waters or in the outer shelf for a period of 4–8 weeks until they metamorphose and develop barbels. Soon thereafter, most species take on a bottom-feeding lifestyle, although other species remain in the open water as juveniles or feed on plankton. Juvenile goatfish often prefer soft bottoms, in seagrass beds to mangroves. They change habitat preference as they develop, coinciding with changes in feeding habits, social behavior, and
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