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Cusk-eels
The cusk-eel family, Ophidiidae, is a group of marine bony fishes in the Ophidiiformes order. The scientific name is from the Greek ''ophis'' meaning "snake", and refers to their eel-like appearance. True eels diverged from other ray-finned fish during the Jurassic, while cusk-eels are part of the Percomorpha clade, along with tuna, perch, seahorses, and others. The oldest fossil cusk-eel is '' Ampheristus'', a highly successful genus with numerous species that existed from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) to the early Oligocene. Distribution Cusk-eels live in temperate and tropical oceans throughout the world. They live close to the sea bottom, ranging from shallow water to the hadal zone. One species, '' Abyssobrotula galatheae'', was recorded at the bottom of the Puerto Rico Trench, making it the deepest recorded fish at . Ecology Cusk-eels are generally very solitary in nature, but some species have been seen to associate themselves with tube worm communiti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ophidiiformes
Ophidiiformes is an order of ray-finned fish that includes the cusk-eels (family Ophidiidae), pearlfishes (family Carapidae), viviparous brotulas (family Bythitidae), and others. Members of this order have small heads and long slender bodies. They have either smooth scales or no scales, a long dorsal fin and an anal fin that typically runs into the caudal fin. They mostly come from the tropics and subtropics, and live in both freshwater and marine habitats, including abyssal depths. They have adopted a range of feeding methods and lifestyles, including parasitism. The majority are egg-laying, but some are viviparous. The earliest fossil members are known from the Maastrichtian, and include the basal ophidiiform '' Pastorius'' from Italy and several species of the basal cusk-eel '' Ampheristus'' from the United States and Germany. Distribution This order includes a variety of deep-sea species, including the deepest known, '' Abyssobrotula galatheae'', found at in the Puerto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Percomorpha
Percomorpha () is an extremely large and diverse clade of ray-finned fish. With more than 17,000 known species (including Scombroidei, tuna, Syngnathiformes, seahorses, gobies, Cichlidae, cichlids, flatfish, Labridae, wrasse, Perciformes, perches, Lophiiformes, anglerfish, and Tetraodontiformes, pufferfish) known from both marine and freshwater ecosystems, it is the most speciose clade of extant Vertebrate, vertebrates. Evolution Percomorpha are the most biodiversity, diverse group of teleost fish today. Teleosts, and percomorphs in particular, thrived during the Cenozoic Era (geology), era. Fossil evidence shows that there was a major increase in size and abundance of teleosts immediately after the mass extinction event at the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary ago. The oldest known percomorph fossils are of the early Tetraodontiformes, tetraodontiforms ''Protriacanthus'' and Cretatriacanthidae from the Santonian to Campanian of Italy and Slov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ampheristus
''Ampheristus'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish. It was a basal or stem member of the family Ophidiidae, which contains modern cusk-eels. Fossils are known from worldwide (the United States, Europe, India, and New Zealand) from the Late Cretaceous to the late Paleogene (Maastrichtian to Oligocene), making it a rather successful survivor of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. It is one of the oldest known members of the order Ophidiiformes alongside '' Pastorius'' from the Maastrichtian of Italy. Only the type species, ''A. toliapicus'' from the London Clay, is known from body fossils; the rest are known only by the genus's distinctive otoliths. Species The following species are known: * ''A. americanus'' Schwarzhans & Stringer, 2020 (Maastrichtian of Texas and Maryland, Danian of Arkansas) * ''A. bavaricus'' (Koken, 1891) (Maastrichtian of Germany) * ''A. bhavnagarensis'' Singh, Patel & Rana, 2017 (Eocene of India) * ''A. brevicauda'' Schwar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spectrunculus Grandis
''Spectrunculus grandis'' is a species of Rhizopharyngia ray-finned fish in the cusk-eel family known by the common names pudgy cusk-eel and giant cusk-eel. It is one of two species in the formerly monotypic genus '' Spectrunculus'', the other species, '' S. crassus'', having been differentiated in 2008.Uiblein, F., et al. (2008). Systematics of the Ophidiid genus ''Spectrunculus'' (Teleostei: Ophidiiformes) with resurrection of ''S. crassus''. ''Copeia'' 3:542-51. The pudgy cusk-eel is a common fish of deep oceans worldwide. It is bathydemersal, living along the ocean floor most often at depths between 2000 and 3000 metres, and known from waters as deep as 4800 metres. It is one of the largest bony fishes living below 2000 meters, reaching up to 127 centimetres in length. The male is larger than the female and darker in colour. It has a long, laterally compressed body and a rounded snout with a single fleshy anterior nostril in front of a flat posterior nostril. The fish varie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clam
Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc. The word is often applied only to those that are deemed edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams have two shells of equal size connected by two adductor muscles and have a powerful burrowing foot. They live in both freshwater and marine environments; in salt water they prefer to burrow down into the mud and the turbidity of the water required varies with species and location; the greatest diversity of these is in North America. Clams in the culinary sense do not live attached to a substrate (whereas oysters and mussels do) and do not live near the bottom (whereas scallops do). In culinary usage, clams are commonly eaten marine bivalves, as in clam digging and the resulting soup, clam chowder. Many edible clams such as palourde clams are ovoid or triangular; however, razor clams have an elongated parallel-sided shell, suggesting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Museum
The Australian Museum, originally known as the Colonial Museum or Sydney Museum. is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney, William Street, Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, New South Wales. It is the oldest natural history museum in Australia and the fifth oldest natural history museum in the world, with an international reputation in the fields of natural history and anthropology. It was first conceived and developed along the contemporary European model of an encyclopedic warehouse of cultural and natural history, and features collections of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as mineralogy, palaeontology and anthropology. The scientific stature of the museum was established under the curatorship of scientist Gerard Krefft in the 1860s. Apart from permanent displays in its galleries, permanent and temporary exhibitions, the museum also undertakes research and is involved in community programs. Since 1973 it has operated the Lizard Island ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Invertebrate
Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate subphylum Vertebrata, i.e. vertebrates. Well-known Phylum, phyla of invertebrates include arthropods, molluscs, annelids, echinoderms, flatworms, cnidarians, and sponges. The majority of animal species are invertebrates; one estimate puts the figure at 97%. Many invertebrate taxon, taxa have a greater number and diversity of species than the entire subphylum of Vertebrata. Invertebrates vary widely in size, from 10 Micrometre, μm (0.0004 in) myxozoans to the 9–10 m (30–33 ft) colossal squid. Some so-called invertebrates, such as the Tunicata and Cephalochordata, are actually sister chordate subphyla to Vertebrata, being more closely related to vertebrates than to other invertebrates. This makes the "invertebrates" para ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oyster
Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not all oysters, are in the superfamily Ostreoidea. Some species of oyster are commonly consumed and are regarded as a delicacy in some localities. Some types of pearl oysters are harvested for the pearl produced within the mantle. Others, such as the translucent Windowpane oysters, are harvested for their shells. Etymology The word ''oyster'' comes from Old French , and first appeared in English during the 14th century. The French derived from the Latin , the feminine form of , which is the Latinisation (literature), latinisation of the Ancient Greek () 'oyster'. Compare () 'bone'. Types True oysters True oysters are members of the family Ostreidae. This family includes the edible oysters, which mainly belong to the genera '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nocturnality
Nocturnality is a behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed senses of hearing, smell, and specially adapted eyesight. Some animals, such as ferrets, have eyes that can adapt to both low-level and bright day levels of illumination (see metaturnal). Others, such as bushbabies and (some) bats, can function only at night. Many nocturnal creatures including tarsiers and some owls have large eyes in comparison with their body size to compensate for the lower light levels at night. More specifically, they have been found to have a larger cornea relative to their eye size than diurnal creatures to increase their : in the low-light conditions. Nocturnality helps wasps, such as ''Apoica flavissima'', avoid hunting in intense sunlight. Diurnal animals, including humans (except for ni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Cucumber
Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class (biology), class Holothuroidea ( ). They are benthic marine animals found on the sea floor worldwide, and the number of known holothuroid species worldwide is about 1,786, with the greatest number being in the Asia–Pacific region. Sea cucumbers serve a useful role in the marine ecosystem as detritivores who help recycle nutrients, breaking down detritus and other organic matter, after which microbes can continue the decomposition process. Sea cucumbers have a leathery skin and an elongated body containing a single, branched gonad, are named for their overall resemblance to the fruit of the cucumber plant. Like all echinoderms, sea cucumbers have a calcified dermal endoskeleton, which is usually reduced to isolated microscopic ossicle (echinoderm), ossicles (or sclerietes) joined by connective tissue. In some species these can sometimes be enlarged to flattened plates, forming an armoured cuticle. In some abyssal or pelagic species s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puerto Rico Trench
The Puerto Rico Trench is located on the boundary between the North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, parallel to and north of Puerto Rico, where the oceanic trench reaches the deepest points in the Atlantic Ocean. The trench is associated with a complex transition from the Lesser Antilles frontal subduction zone between the South American plate and Caribbean plate to the oblique subduction zone and the strike-slip transform fault zone between the North American plate and Caribbean plate, which extends from the Puerto Rico Trench at the Puerto Rico–Virgin Islands microplate through the Cayman Trough at the Gonâve microplate to the Middle America Trench at the Cocos plate. Constituting the deepest points in the Atlantic Ocean, the trench is long and has a maximum documented depth between and . The deepest point is commonly referred to as the Milwaukee Deep, with the Brownson Deep naming the seabed surrounding it. However, more recently, the latter term has also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Invertebrate
Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate subphylum Vertebrata, i.e. vertebrates. Well-known Phylum, phyla of invertebrates include arthropods, molluscs, annelids, echinoderms, flatworms, cnidarians, and sponges. The majority of animal species are invertebrates; one estimate puts the figure at 97%. Many invertebrate taxon, taxa have a greater number and diversity of species than the entire subphylum of Vertebrata. Invertebrates vary widely in size, from 10 Micrometre, μm (0.0004 in) myxozoans to the 9–10 m (30–33 ft) colossal squid. Some so-called invertebrates, such as the Tunicata and Cephalochordata, are actually sister chordate subphyla to Vertebrata, being more closely related to vertebrates than to other invertebrates. This makes the "invertebrates" para ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
