Sand lance
{{Short description|Family of ray-finned fishes}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| name = Sand lances
| image = Ammodytes hexapterus.jpg
| image_caption = Ammodytes hexapterus
| taxon = Ammodytidae
| authority = Bonaparte, 1832
| subdivision_ranks = Genera
| subdivision_ref = {{FishBase family | family = Ammodytidae| month = December | year = 2012}}
| subdivision =
}}
File:Tern-sand-lance.jpg, ME - August 2013]]
A sand lance or sandlance is a ray-finned fish belonging to the family Ammodytidae. Several species of sand lances are commonly known as "sand eels", though they are not related to true eels. Another variant name is launce,Bigalow & Schroeder, 1953 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 and North Atlantic, but are found in oceans throughout the world. These fish do not have pelvic fins and do not develop swim bladders, staying true to their bottom-dwelling habit as adults. Both adult and larval sea lances primarily feed on copepods. Larval 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, salmon, whales{{cite web|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130425-humpback-whale-culture-behavior-science-animals/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130427093142/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130425-humpback-whale-culture-behavior-science-animals/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 27, 2013 |title=Do Whales Have Culture? Humpbacks Pass on Behavior |publisher=News.nationalgeographic.com |date= |accessdate=2013-04-28}} 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, auks, terns, and cormorants. 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.
File:Ammodytes americanus.jpg]]
Convergent evolution
Sand lances have chameleon-like independent eye movements and special focusing lenses. Sand lance also have a tongue that can quickly dart out of its mouth at high velocity, a ballistic tongue. Sand lances and chameleons share other features.John D. Pettigrew, Shaun P. Collin, and Matthias Ott, "Convergence of Specialised Behaviour, Eye Movements and Visual Optics in the Sandlance (Teleostei) and the Chameleon (Reptilia)," Current Biology 9 (April 1999): 421–24, doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(99)80189-4Michael F. Land, "Visual Optics: The Sandlance Eye Breaks All the Rules," Current Biology 9 (April 1999): R286–88, doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(99)80180-8.[https://biobubblepets.com/chameleons-and-their-amazing-tongues/ Chameleons And Their Amazing Tongues, November 6, 2022, biobubblepets.com]
Timeline
ImageSize = width:1000px height:auto barincrement:15px
PlotArea = left:10px bottom:50px top:10px right:10px
Period = from:-65.5 till:10
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:-65.5
ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:-65.5
TimeAxis = orientation:hor
AlignBars = justify
Colors =
#legends
id:CAR value:claret
id:ANK value:rgb(0.4,0.3,0.196)
id:HER value:teal
id:HAD value:green
id:OMN value:blue
id:black value:black
id:white value:white
id:cenozoic value:rgb(0.54,0.54,0.258)
id:paleogene value:rgb(0.99,0.6,0.32)
id:paleocene value:rgb(0.99,0.65,0.37)
id:eocene value:rgb(0.99,0.71,0.42)
id:oligocene value:rgb(0.99,0.75,0.48)
id:neogene value:rgb(0.999999,0.9,0.1)
id:miocene value:rgb(0.999999,0.999999,0)
id:pliocene value:rgb(0.97,0.98,0.68)
id:quaternary value:rgb(0.98,0.98,0.5)
id:pleistocene value:rgb(0.999999,0.95,0.68)
id:holocene value:rgb(0.999,0.95,0.88)
BarData=
bar:eratop
bar:space
bar:periodtop
bar:space
bar:NAM1
bar:NAM2
bar:space
bar:period
bar:space
bar:era
PlotData=
align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25
shift:(7,-4)
bar:periodtop
from: -65.5 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text:Paleocene
from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text:Eocene
from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:Oligocene
from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text:Miocene
from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text:Plio.
from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text:Pleist.
from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text:H.
bar:eratop
from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:Paleogene
from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:Neogene
from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text:Q.
PlotData=
align:left fontsize:M mark:(line,white) width:5 anchor:till align:left
color:eocene bar:NAM1 from: -55.8 till: 0 text: Ammodytes
color:miocene bar:NAM2 from: -15.97 till: 0 text: Hyperoplus
PlotData=
align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25
bar:period
from: -65.5 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text:Paleocene
from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text:Eocene
from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:Oligocene
from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text:Miocene
from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text:Plio.
from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text:Pleist.
from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text:H.
bar:era
from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:Paleogene
from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:Neogene
from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text:Q.
See also
The sand lance has lent its name to two submarines of the United States Navy:
- {{USS|Sand Lance|SS-381}}, a {{sclass|Balao|submarine|1}}.
- {{USS|Sand Lance|SSN-660}}, a Sturgeon-class nuclear submarine.
References
- {{cite journal | last1 = Bigelow | first1 = H. B. | last2 = Schroeder | first2 = W. C. | title = Sand launce Ammodytes americanus De Kay 1942, in Fishes of the Gulf of Maine, Fishery Bulletin 74 | journal = Fishery Bulletin of the Fish and Wildlife Service | volume = 53 | date = 1953 | url = http://www.gma.org/fogm/Ammodytes_americanus.htm}}
- [http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/205/9/1241 biologists.org on independent eye movements]
- {{cite journal | last = Sepkoski | first = Jack | title = A compendium of fossil marine animal genera | journal = Bulletins of American Paleontology | volume = 364 | page =560 | year = 2002 | url = http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class | accessdate = 2011-05-19 }}
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/zone/underwater_sous-marin/SandLance/sandlanc_e.htm Sand Lance] profile at Fisheries and Oceans Canada
{{Taxonbar|from=Q695712}}