Atlantic wreckfish
species of fish
The Atlantic wreckfish (Polyprion americanus), also known as the stone bass or bass groper (among other names), is a marine, bathydemersal, and oceanodromous ray-finned fish in the family Polyprionidae. It has a worldwide, if disjunct, distribution in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Description
The Atlantic wreckfish is a large fish with a deep, robust body and a large head with a protruding lower jaw. The two dorsal fins are joined, the first has 11 spines with the final spine joined onto the second dorsal fin, which has 12 branched rays. The anal fin has a short base and has three robust spines. The caudal fin is broad and square. The body is covered with small, firmly attached scales which run up the base of the dorsal and anal fin. It has a large mouth and eyes. The preoperculum has a spiny margin while the operculum has a thick bony strut running horizontally at eye level which terminates in a spine. The back and flanks are dark brown in colour with darker spots and blotches fading to yellowish on the belly.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Atlantic wreckfish” as species of fish. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of fish. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q235822. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Atlantic wreckfish” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.