Classification of the Esox lucius
Commonly known as the Northern Pike
Domain: Eukaryota
The cells of the Esox lucius have membrane bound nucleus and also membrane bound organelles.
Kingdom: Animilia
The northern pike cells
have no cell wall, it is multi-cellular, cells are organized
into tissues, and is mobile.
Phylum: Chordata
The
Chordata contain a notochord, are bilaterally symmetrical, and
has a true coelom.
Class:
Actinopterygii
This class
is defined as the ray-finned fishes.
Order:
Esociformes
The order of Esociformes
contains the mudminnows and pike. Its a small group of
freshwater fish that contain 5 species of each the mudminnows
and pike. Characteristics of these fish are long, streamlined,
predatory fish, with the ability to achieve great bursts of
speed, and have a insatiable hunger.
Family: Esocidae
This is
the family of pikes including 5 different species. The
characteristics of these fish are duckbill-like snouts with long
cylindrical bodies. These species can grow up to 1.8 meters and can weigh around 35 kilograms.
Genus: Esox
Species: Esox lucius
They can be identified by a single dorsal fin, have light
colored spots on a darker body, and also have scales covering
their entire body except for the bottom half of the gills.
In English the name Esox means pitiless while
lucius means water wolf.
Phylogenetic Tree
This phylogenetic tree is based on amino acid sequences. The sequence used was AANAT.
Website created Spring 2008 by Brian Haslag