Esox

Pike (Esox lucius)

The pike (Esox ) are a genus of spindle-shaped predators with five species that live in Europe, North America and North Asia. The pike (Esox lucius) has the widest distribution area and occurs cirkumpolar, the Amurhecht (Esox reicherti ) lives in the basin of the Amur and on Sakhalin, the three remaining species are restricted to eastern North America. Pike are voracious predators and feed on other fish, frogs, pigs, mice, rats, and young ducks, occasionally even cancers.

Features

Pike have a drum-shaped (sideways only slightly flattened ) body and a wide, duckbill jaw with about 700 peaks, backward curved teeth (canine teeth, catching and brushing teeth). Dorsal fin and anal fin are shifted far to the rear, and together with the tail fin of a rudder, which allows the shock robbers a quick foray into the prey. The pelvic fins are sitting in the middle of the body. The caudal fin is forked and has 40 to 50 fin rays, 17 of which are branched. No fin has hard jets. Pike have small round scales, the lateral line is complete. The swim bladder is connected by a duct pneumaticus with the foregut. Pike, depending on the type, 40 inches up to 1.80 meters long. The number of vertebrae is 43 to 67

System

The genus Esox has two sub- genera and six species:

• Subgenus Esox Pike (Esox lucius) Linnaeus, 1758
• Esox cisalpinus Bianco & Delmastro, 2011
• Muskellunge (Esox masquinongy ) Mitchill, 1824
• Amurhecht (Esox reicherti ) Dybowski, 1869

• American pike (Esox americanus) Gmelin, 1789 Rotflossenhecht (Esox americanus americanus) Gmelin, 1789
• Grass pike (Esox americanus vermiculatus ) Lesueur, 1846

The "Tiger pike " is a cross between the European pike and muskellunge.

In addition to Esox, more recently, two previously to the dog fish ( Umbridae ) counted genera, Dallia and Novumbra be placed in the Esocidae family. Phylogenetic studies have recently shown that these genera are more closely related Esox than Umbra. Novumbra is the sister group of Esox, both together are the sister group of Dallia. All three genera together are the sister group of Umbra.

Phylogeny

The Esocidae family may be fossil evidence already in the late Cretaceous period with the genera Estesox and Oldmanesox. From the Paleocene the oldest known species of the genus Esox, E. tiemani comes from Alberta. The oldest Esox species, which was found outside of North America comes from the early Eocene of China. One type found in Germany 's E. lepidotus from the Miocene of Oehningen. About the derivative of the Esociformes there is still no clarity (as of 2009 ).