Ammodytes Ammodytoides Bleekeria Gymnammodytes Hyperoplus Lepidammodytes Protammodytes See text for species.
A sand lance or sandlance is a fish A fish is any aquatic vertebrate animal that is covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins. Most fish are ectothermic . Fish are abundant in most bodies of water. Fish can be found in high mountain streams (e.g., char and gudgeon) and in the deepest ocean depths (e.g., gulpers and anglerfish) belonging to the family Ammodytidae. Several species of sand lance are commonly known as "sand eels" or "sandeels", though they are not related to true eels True eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 19 families, 110 genera and approximately 600 species. Most eels are predators. The term "eel" is also used for some other similarly shaped fish, such as electric eels and spiny eels, but these are not members of the Anguilliformes order. Another variant name is launce, and all names of the fish are references to its slender body and pointed snout. The family name (and genus name, Ammodytes) means "sand burrower", which describes the sand lance's habit of burrowing into sand to avoid tidal currents.
Sand lances are most commonly encountered by fishermen in the North Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas and North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek mythology, making the Atlantic the "Sea of, but are found in oceans throughout the world. These fish do not have pelvic fins and do not develop a swim bladder The gas bladder is an internal gas-filled organ that contributes to the ability of a fish to control its buoyancy, and thus to stay at the current water depth without having to waste energy in swimming, staying true to their bottom-dwelling habit as adults. Both adult and larval sea lances primarily feed on copepods Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. Many species are planktonic (drifting in sea waters), but more are benthic (living on the ocean floor), and some continental species may live in limno-terrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests,. Larval A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle forms of this fish are perhaps the most abundant of all fish larvae in areas such as the northwest Atlantic, serving as a major food item for cod Cod is the common name for the genus Gadus, belonging to the family Gadidae, and is also used in the common name for various other fishes. Cod is a popular food with a mild flavor, low fat content and a dense, flaky white flesh. Cod livers are processed to make cod liver oil, an important source of Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E and omega-3 fatty, salmon Salmon is the common name for several species of fish of the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, a distinction that holds true for the Salmo genus. Salmon live in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Great Lakes (, and other commercially important species. As adults, sand lances are harvested commercially in some areas (primarily in Europe), leading to direct human competition with diving birds such as puffins Puffins are any of three auk species in the bird genus Fratercula with a brightly coloured beak in the breeding season. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crevices among rocks or in burrows in the soil. The Tufted Puffin was formerly, auks Auks are birds of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. They are superficially similar to penguins due to their black-and-white colours, their upright posture and some of their habits. Nevertheless they are not closely related to the penguins, but rather are an example of moderate convergent evolution, and cormorants The bird family Phalacrocoracidae is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of genera is disputed. Some species are inshore coastal dwellers, and digging for sand lances to use as a bait fish has been a popular pastime in coastal areas of Europe and North America. Other species are deep-water dwellers, some of which have only recently been described to science, and most of which lack common names. Sand lances have chameleon-like independent eye movements.
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Species
There are twenty-three species in seven genera:
- Genus Ammodytes
- American sand lance, Ammodytes americanus DeKay, 1842.
- Northern sand lance, Ammodytes dubius Reinhardt, 1837.
- Pacific sand lance, Ammodytes hexapterus Pallas Peter Simon Pallas was a German zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia, 1814.
- Small sand-eel Raitt's sand eel, Ammodytes marinus, is a fish in the Ammodytidae family. It contains likenesses to the lesser sand eel. Its dinstinguished by the fact of that belly scales are found to be irregularly formed; and having no scales on the lobes of the tail. Furthermore, the dorsal fin is made of at least 56 to 63 rays, with an overall maximum lengyh,, Ammodytes marinus Raitt, 1934.
- Pacific sandeel, Ammodytes personatus Girard Charles Frédéric Girard was a French biologist specializing on ichthyology and herpetology, 1856.
- Lesser sand eel, Ammodytes tobianus The lesser sand eel or sand lance, Ammodytes tobianus, is a fish, which may be up to 20 cm long. Its body has an elongated shape with a rounded cross section. The head is also elongated and pointed, and it contains a sharp prominent lower jaw. The upper jaw overlaps, and can open forward to form a tube. The top of the fish's mouth lacks teeth. The Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné , 23 May [O.S. 12 May] 1707 – 10 January 1778) was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the, 1758.
- Genus Ammodytoides
- Gill's sand lance, Ammodytoides gilli (Bean, 1895).
- Ammodytoides kimurai Ida & Randall, 1993.
- Pitcairn Sandlance, Ammodytoides leptus Collette & Randall, 2000.
- Ammodytoides pylei Randall, Ida & Earle, 1994.
- Scaly sandlance, Ammodytoides renniei (Smith, 1957).
- Ammodytoides vagus (McCulloch & Waite, 1916).
- Genus Bleekeria
- Bleekeria kallolepis Günther, 1862.
- Bleekeria mitsukurii Jordan David Starr Jordan, Ph.D., LL.D. was a leading eugenicist, ichthyologist (the study of fish), educator and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and Stanford University & Evermann, 1902.
- Bleekeria viridianguilla (Fowler, 1931).
- Genus Gymnammodytes
- Cape sandlance, Gymnammodytes capensis (Barnard, 1927).
- Mediterranean sand eel, Gymnammodytes cicerellus (Rafinesque, 1810).
- Smooth sandeel, Gymnammodytes semisquamatus (Jourdain, 1879).
- Genus Hyperoplus
- Great sand eel, Hyperoplus immaculatus (Corbin, 1950).
- Greater sand eel, Hyperoplus lanceolatus The greater sand eel or launce is the greater species of sand eel. The maximum sixe is 35 cm. Common sand eel have an elongated body, with a rounded cross section. It has a long pointed head, and a protruding lower jaw. Its upper jaw, however is not entirely protrusible, this thus makes it unable to form a tube. A monocle "toooth-shaped" (Le Sauvage, 1824).
- Genus Lepidammodytes
- Lepidammodytes macrophthalmus Ida, Sirimontaporn & Monkolprasit, 1994.
- Genus Protammodytes
- Protammodytes brachistos Ida, Sirimontaporn & Monkolprasit, 1994.
- Protammodytes sarisa (Robins & Böhlke, 1970).
See also
The sand lance has lent its name to two submarines of the United States Navy The United States Navy is the sea branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. As of 31 December 2008, the U.S. Navy had about 331,682 personnel on active duty and 124,000 in the Navy Reserve. It operates 284 ships in active service and more than 3,700 aircraft. The U.S. Navy is the largest in:
- USS Sand Lance (SS-381) USS Sand Lance , a Balao-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sand lance, a member of the ammodytidae family. Her keel was laid down on 12 March 1943 by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. She was launched on 25 June 1943 sponsored by Mrs. Edith Burrows, and commissioned on 9 October 1943 at Portsmouth, New, a Balao-class submarine The Balao class was a successful design of United States Navy submarine used during World War II, and with 128 units built, the largest class of submarines in the United States Navy. An improvement on the earlier Gato class, the boats had slight internal differences. The most significant improvement was the use of thicker, higher yield strength.
- USS Sand Lance (SSN-660), a Sturgeon-class nuclear submarine.
References
- "Ammodytidae". FishBase FishBase is a comprehensive database of information about fish. As of October 2008[update], it included descriptions of over 30,000 species, over 260,000 common names in hundreds of languages, over 46,000 pictures, and references to more than 42,000 works in the scientific literature. Ed. Rainer Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
- biologists.org on independent eye movements
External links
- Sand Lance profile at Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Categories: Ammodytidae
St Helens Today
Fire crews were called out to College Street at 5.30am on Monday (December 21) after a 37-year-old man got both legs trapped while using a steam sand lance ...
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3 Attach thread insert red amnesia through the center of the body 4 Tie down body and amnesia with a couple of loose wraps then tighten down
Chester Allen
Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:37:11 GM
The dropping tide would last through dusk and beyond, and this beach usually swarms with baitfish -- in the form of the eel-like . sand lance. -- when current rips form in low light. As I drove the 10 miles to the trailhead, ...
