CalCOFI.io CalCOFI.io open data ecosystem

Parexocoetus brachypterus

Sailfin flyingfish

Speciesaccepted · checked 2026-08-05WoRMS 217872ITIS 165522GBIF 2368600key worms:217872
i

2026-08-05: itis_id 165522 via WoRMS external link

The sailfin flying fish is a member of the flyingfish family Exocoetidae. As is typical of other members of its family, this species has the ability to jump out of the water and glide on hypertrophied fins in order to evade predators.W CalCOFI holds 6 observations of it in 1 dataset between 2002 and 2006, as larva.R

6
observations
6
records
6
sampling events
2002–2006
years
1
datasets
larva
life stages
20 cm
max length
Photograph of Parexocoetus brachypterus
Photo · David Starr Jordan and Barton Warren Evermann, no known copyright restrictions (public domain) · Public domain · inat

Observed in 1 dataset
i

One row per dataset, and beside it one cell per year, darker with more observations — the same strip the front door draws per dataset. Each row ends with the name that dataset uses (dataset_taxon); the accepted name is written once, in the title above. A quiet pill marks a name the authority does not accept.

  • 6 obs6 events2002–2006larva
    name used: Parexocoetus brachypterus Sailfin flyingfish · code 1395

Ways inExplorerdb-queryERDDAPRPythonThis page as JSON

Code and endpoints ERDDAP · R · Python · JSON
ERDDAPCalCOFI's own server, the Ichthyoplankton table constrained to this taxon
https://erddap.calcofi.io/erddap/tabledap/swfsc_ichthyo.html?&taxon_key=%22worms:217872%22

Read from taxa.json of release v2026.10.19, written at release by calcofi4db::build_taxa_catalog(). The catalog's index is /species/.

How big is it 20 cm max
Sailfin flyingfish20 cm
bongo net ring71 cm

max · worms_attribute

Every mark is a measured length with its own source — hover one to read it. The reference objects are _data/size_reference.csv: two of them, the 505 µm bongo mesh and the net's ring, are CalCOFI's own sampling gear.

Life stages larva
  • Ichthyoplankton larva

The stages each dataset records for it, from the release's obs_bio.life_stage. Their lengths are under How big is it.

Lineage 12 ranks · Biota to Parexocoetus
Credits silhouette · photo · text · length
  • Silhouette · T. Michael Keesey · Public Domain Mark · PhyloPic, drawn from Cheilopogon spilopterus · source
  • Photo · David Starr Jordan and Barton Warren Evermann, no known copyright restrictions (public domain) · Public domain · inat · source
  • Text · Wikipedia, “Sailfin flying fish” · CC BY-SA 4.0 · revision 1366727123
  • Length · worms_attribute
Elsewhere Wikidata · iNaturalist · FishBase

WikidataiNaturalistFishBase

The same organism on the services the faces were fetched from; the authorities' own pages are the ids in the head.

Cite the release, v2026.10.19

Cite the release, v2026.10.19; each dataset's own citation, licence and DOI are on its page. How to cite ↗