Dactylopteridae

The flying gurnards are a family, Dactylopteridae, of marine fish notable for their greatly enlarged pectoral fins. As they cannot literally fly, an alternative name preferred by some authors is helmet gurnards. They are the only family in the suborder Dactylopteroidei.

They have been observed to "walk" along sandy sea floors while looking for crustaceans and other small invertebrates by using their pelvic fins. Like the true gurnards, to which they may be related, they possess a swim bladder with two lobes and a "drumming muscle" that can beat against the swim bladder to produce sounds. They have heavy, protective, scales, and the undersides of their huge pectoral fins are brightly coloured, perhaps to startle predators.

Most species live in the Indo-Pacific, but at least one is native to the Atlantic. The adults live on the sea bottom, but many species have an extended larval stage, which floats freely in the oceans.

Classification

The family is small, with seven species in two genera.

Genus Dactyloptena
Dactyloptena gilberti, Snyder, 1909
Spotwing flying gurnard, Dactyloptena macracantha (Bleeker, 1854)
Oriental flying gurnard, Dactyloptena orientalis (Cuvier, 1829)
Butterfly flying gurnard, Dactyloptena papilio Ogilby, 1910
Starry flying gurnard, Dactyloptena peterseni (Nyström, 1887)
Dactyloptena tiltoni, Eschmeyer, 1997
Genus Dactylopterus
Flying gurnard, Dactylopterus volitans (Linnaeus, 1758)

Translation

The word "Dactylopteridae" occurs as such in the following languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Turkish.

Translation(s) in other languages: German: Flughähne, Navajo: Táłtłʼááh naatʼáʼii, Lithuanian: Sparnapelekinės, Dutch: Vliegende knorhanen, Norwegian (Bokmål): Flygeknurrer, Chinese: 飛角魚科.