Bighead sculpin

Bighead sculpin
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Cottidae
Genus:	Batrachocottus
Species:	B. baicalensis
Binomial name
Batrachocottus baicalensis Dybowski, 1874
Synonyms
Cottus baicalensis Dybowski, 1874

The bighead sculpin (Batrachocottus baicalensis) is a species of sculpin fish that is endemic to the Lake Baikal watershed in Siberia, Russia.[1] It typically lives on rocky bottoms, often in places with sponges, at depths of 5 to 70 m (16–230 ft), but can occur as deep as 120 m (390 ft).[2] Its colour varies from grayish to brownish or greenish depending on the bottom type.[2] It can reach up to 22 cm (8.7 in) in length, but most are 13–16 cm (5.1–6.3 in).[2] It feeds on a wide range of smaller animals such as young fish, insect larvae, amphipods, molluscs and oligochaetes.[2] Breeding is in the spring where the female lays 618 to 1622 eggs, which are guarded by the male.[2]

The bighead sculpin is variously considered to belong either to the family Cottocomephoridae,[1] Cottidae[3] or Abyssocottidae.[4]

References

1. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2015). "Batrachocottus baicalensis". FishBase.
2. "Байкальская большеголовая широколобка" (in Russian). zooex.baikal.ru. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
3. William Eschmeyer (2015) baicalensis, Cottus Archived February 14, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences.
4. Tytti Kontula, Sergei V. Kirilchik, Risto Väinölä (2003) Endemic diversification of the monophyletic cottoid fish species flock in Lake Baikal explored with mtDNA sequencing Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 27, 1, 143–155.