CLASS OSTEICHTHYES. BONY FISHES 



391 



Seahorses 



Seahorses (Fig. 252) are small and do not 

 look much like fish, the head resembling 

 that of a horse. They swim by means of the 

 dorsal and pectoral fins, holding themselves 

 in a vertical position; they move at a snail's 

 pace. Often they cling to objects with their 

 prehensile tail. The eggs are carried in a 

 brood pouch of the male until they hatch. 

 The sea dragon of Australia (Fig. 264) is 



Figure 264. Australian sea dragon, Phyllopteryx, 

 the most bizarre of all seahorses. The postures and 

 antics of these fishes are as distinctive and grotesque 

 as their appearance. The leaflike extentions from 

 the body tend to conceal the fish among seaweed. 

 Natural size up to 12 inches long. (Courtesy of 

 the American Museum of Natural History.) 



provided with leaflike appendages of skin 

 which have a remarkable resemblance to 

 seaweed among which they live. These fishes 

 represent a more specialized stage in evolu- 

 tion than the streamlined fishes, 



Porcupine fishes 



These inhabitants of tropical seas are 

 covered with movable spines, hence their 

 name. They live on the bottom among sea- 

 weeds and corals, and, when disturbed, in- 

 flate their bodies by swallowing water or air 

 (Fig. 266), in which condition they are not 

 easily injured by their enemies. 



Anglers 



Living on the bottom of the Atlantic, 

 Indian, and Pacific oceans are about a 

 dozen genera of extremely large-mouthed 

 fishes known as anglers (Fig. 265). Lophius, 

 the fishing frog or goosefish, occurs along 

 the Atlantic Coast of North America. Its 

 long dorsal ray is inserted on the snout and 

 serves as a fishing rod with "bait." The latter 

 consists of dermal tentacles. Their wormlike 

 appearance attracts other fishes, which are 

 engulfed into the big mouth cavity as the 



Figure 265. An anglerfish from the deep sea; a 

 fish that fishes. Note large mouth with sharp teeth 

 and luminous dermal tentacles projecting from the 

 upper and lower jaws. The one on top of the snout 

 is called a rod with a luminous "bait" at the tip. 

 (Courtesy of the American Museum of Natural 

 History.) 



