lancer dragonet

Open encyclopedia reference

The lancer dragonet (Callionymus bairdi), Baird's dragonet, coral dragonet or St Helena dragonet, is a species of dragonet native to the warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean where it occurs at depths of from 1 to 91 metres (3.3 to 298.6 ft). In the western Atlantic it occurs from Cape Hatteras southwards along the east coast of North America. including Bermuda and the Bahamas, into the Gulf of Mexico and throughout the Caribbean Sea. It has also been recorded from Ilha da Trindade off Brazil. In the eastern Atlantic it has been recorded from the Cape Verde Islands, Ascension Island, St. Helena, and Sao Tome e Principe in the Gulf of Guinea. This species grows to a length of 11.4 centimetres (4.5 in) TL.

Callionymus bairdi is found over sandy bottoms but also over substrates of rocky-rubble. It occurs in shallow reefs as well as in beds of Thalassia testudinum. It is a sexually dimorphic species. The juveniles occur shallower than 15m.

The specific name honours the U.S. ornithologist and ichthyologist Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887).

Wikipedia contributors, Lancer dragonet; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T05:02:29.387796+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Callionymus bairdi Jordan, 1888

Name authority

Jordan, 1888

Common name

lancer dragonet

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Teleostei

Order

Callionymiformes

Family

Callionymidae

Genus

Callionymus

Extinction status

Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. gigaclassActinopterygii
8. superclassActinopteri
9. classTeleostei
10. orderCallionymiformes
11. familyCallionymidae Bonaparte, 1831
12. genusCallionymus Linnaeus, 1758
13. speciesCallionymus bairdi Jordan, 1888

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Callionymus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 115 records assigned to Callionymidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. Eigenmann, C. H., & Eigenmann, R. S. (1888). A list of the American species of Gobiidae and Callionymidae, with notes on the specimens contained in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences (Series 2), v. 1 (pt 1): 51–78. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:5X7W9. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.