Schindleria brevipinguis
| Schindleria brevipinguis | |
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| Species: | S. brevipinguis
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| Schindleria brevipinguis | |
Schindleria brevipinguis is a species of marine fish in family Schindleriidae of Perciformes. Known as the stout infantfish, it is native to Australia's Great Barrier Reef and to Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea.[1]
S. brevipinguis is the among the smallest known fish, together with species such as Paedocypris progenetica and Pandaka pygmaea. Males of S. brevipinguis have an average standard length of 7.7 mm (0.30 in), a gravid female was 8.4 mm (0.33 in) and the maximum standard length of the species is 10 mm (0.39 in).[2] The smallest vertebrate species currently is the recently (Jan 2012) described frog Paedophryne amauensis, while the parasitic males of the anglerfish Photocorynus spiniceps are but 6.2 millimetres (0.24 in) long. S. brevipinguis is distinguished from the similar S. praematura by having its first anal-fin ray further forward, under dorsal-fin 4, rather than 7–11 in S. praematura.
The specific epithet, brevipinguis, derives from the Latin brevis (short) and pinguis (stout), in reference to the fish's shorter, thicker body, as compared with other Schindleria species.
The first specimen was collected by Jeff Leis in 1979, but the species was not formally described until a 2004 paper (Watson and Walker).
The discovery of S. brevipinguis relegated to second place the previous smallest known vertebrate, Trimmatom nanus, a dwarf goby of the western Indian Ocean.
References
- ^ Watson, William; Walker, Jr., H. J. (2004). "The World's Smallest Vertebrate, Schindleria brevipinguis, A New Paedomorphic Species in the Family Schindleriidae (Perciformes: Gobioidei)" (PDF). Records of the Australian Museum. 56. Australian Museum: 139–142. doi:10.3853/j.0067-1975.56.2004.1429. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2017). "Schindleria brevipinguis" in FishBase. September 2017 version.
- McGrouther, M., J. Leis, T. Trnski. "Stout Infantfish, Schindleria brevipinguis". Fishes: Australian Museum Fish Site. July 2004.
- Picture of Stout Infantfish
