Name That Animal

The only rule is:  no researching.  Post your best guess in the comments.  Viewing other people’s answers before you post is optional but I will tell you that usually several people post correct answers on these things so looking first may spoil it for you if you aren’t sure.  Answer will be posted in the comments later today.

 

11 thoughts on “Name That Animal

  1. It’s a flying gunard! Also known as a helmeted gunard. A fairly common fish in shallow waters here in Hawaii.

  2. ANSWER TIME

    This is a flying gurnard. From the Wiki entry:

    The flying gurnards are a family, Dactylopteridae, of marine fish notable for their greatly enlarged pectoral fins. As they cannot literally fly, an alternative name preferred by some authors is helmet gurnards.[1] They are the only family in the suborder Dactylopteroidei.

    They have been observed to “walk” along sandy sea floors while looking for crustaceans and other small invertebrates by using their pelvic fins. Like the true gurnards (sea robins), to which they may be related, they possess a swim bladder with two lobes and a “drumming muscle” that can beat against the swim bladder to produce sounds. They have heavy, protective, scales, and the undersides of their huge pectoral fins are brightly coloured, perhaps to startle predators.[1]

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