Triglops is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the familyCottidae, the typical sculpins. These fishes are found in the North Pacific, Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans.
Triglops sculpins have slender, elongate, cylindrical to compressed or flattened bodies with a small head, which may also be slightly depressed or compressed, with a small horizontal or slightly oblique mouth. They have clearly separated dorsal fins, the first containing between 9 and 13 slender spines and the second having between 19 and 31 soft rays. The anal fin is supported by 18 to 32 soft rays.[5] This genus is distinguished from the other marine sculpin genera by having the anus positioned halfway between the origins of the pelvic and anal fins, a feature shared with the genera Clinocottus and Leiocottus. The lateral line is made up of large scales which resemble plates and the scales underneath these form obvious rows of very small serrated plates, these are within close-set diagonal skin folds, a feature shared solely with Jordania. There are four preopercular spines and the branchiostegal membranes are joined but do not connect to the isthmus. They have vomerine teeth but no palatine teeth. The pelvic fin has a single spine and three soft rays. There are no cutaneous cirri on the head.[6] The fishes in this genus range from a maximum published standard length of 9.7 cm (3.8 in) in T. xenostethus up to 30.8 cm (12.1 in) in T. scepticus.[4]
Triglops sculpins are predators of invertebrates such as polychaetes, crustaceans and sometimes smaller fishes. They spawn from late summer into the winter, laying between 100 and over 2,500 demersal eggs.[5]
^ abcTheodore W. Pietsch (1993). "Systematics and distribution of cottid fishes of the genus Triglops Reinhardt (Teleostei:Scorpaeniformes)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 109: 335–393.