|
Giant Stargazer
The giant stargazer (''Kathetostoma giganteum'') is a stargazer of the family Uranoscopidae, found on the continental shelf around New Zealand and endemic to that area. It is commonly called monkfish, but this should not be confused with the Northern Hemisphere monkfish which is an entirely different genus of fish, ''Lophius'', in another order, Lophiiformes The anglerfish are ray-finned fish in the order Lophiiformes (). Both the order's common and scientific name comes from the characteristic mode of predation, in which a modified dorsal fin ray acts as a lure for prey (akin to a human angler, .... References * * Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, ''Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand'', (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) Uranoscopidae Endemic marine fish of New Zealand Fish described in 1873 {{Labriformes-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julius Von Haast
Sir Johann Franz Julius von Haast (1 May 1822 – 16 August 1887) was a German-born New Zealand explorer, geologist, and founder of the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch. Early life Johann Franz Julius Haast was born on 1 May 1822 in Bonn, a town in the Kingdom of Prussia, to a merchant and his wife. As a child, he attended a local school but was also educated at a grammar school in Cologne. After completing his formal schooling, he then entered the University of Bonn, where he studied geology and mineralogy. However, he did not graduate. As a young man, he travelled throughout Europe before basing himself in Frankfurt, working in the trading of books and mineral samples collected on his journeys. On 26 October 1846, Haast married Antonia Schmitt at Frankfurt, Germany. The marriage, although unhappy, produced a son named Robert two years later. Haast was fluent in English and, in 1858, was contracted by a British shipping firm, A. Willis, Gann & Company, to report on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stargazer (fish)
The stargazers are a family (biology), family, Uranoscopidae, of perciform ray-finned fish that have eyes on top of their heads (hence the name). The family includes about 51 species (one extinct) in eight genus, genera, all ocean, marine and found worldwide in shallow and deep saltwaters. Description In addition to the top-mounted eyes, a stargazer also has a large, upward-facing mouth in a large head. Their usual habit is to bury themselves in sand, and leap upwards to ambush prey (Demersal fish, benthic fish and invertebrates) that pass overhead. Some species have a worm-shaped lure growing out of the floors of their mouths, which they can wiggle to attract prey's attention. Both the dorsal fin, dorsal and anal fins are relatively long; some lack dorsal spines. Lengths range from 18 up to 90 cm, for the giant stargazer ''Kathetostoma giganteum''. Stargazers are venom (poison), venomous; they have two large venomous spines situated behind their opercles and above their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Family (biology)
Family (, : ) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". The delineation of what constitutes a family—or whether a described family should be acknowledged—is established and decided upon by active taxonomists. There are not strict regulations for outlining or acknowledging a family, yet in the realm of plants, these classifications often rely on both the vegetative and reproductive characteristics of plant species. Taxonomists frequently hold varying perspectives on these descriptions, leading to a lack of widespread consensus within the scientific community ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continental Shelf
A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island is known as an "''insular shelf''." The continental margin, between the continental shelf and the abyssal plain, comprises a steep continental slope, surrounded by the flatter continental rise, in which sediment from the continent above cascades down the slope and accumulates as a pile of sediment at the base of the slope. Extending as far as 500 km (310 mi) from the slope, it consists of thick sediments deposited by turbidity currents from the shelf and slope. The continental rise's gradient is intermediate between the gradients of the slope and the shelf. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the name continental shelf was given a legal definition as the stretch of the seabed adjacent to the shores ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of island countries, sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The Geography of New Zealand, country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps (), owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. Capital of New Zealand, New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and subsequently developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goosefish
Goosefishes, sometimes called anglers or monkfishes, are a Family (biology), family, the Lophiidae, of marine Actinopterygii, ray-finned fishes belonging to the Order (biology), order Lophiiformes, the anglerfishes. The family includes 30 recognized species. These fishes are found in all the world's oceans except for the Antarctic Ocean. Taxonomy The goosefish family, Lophiidae, was first proposed as a genus in 1810 by the French polymath and naturalist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. The Lophiidae is the only family in the Monotypic taxon, monotypic suborder Lophioidei, this is one of 5 suborders of the Lophiiformes. The Lophioidei is considered to be the most Basal (phylogenetics), basal of the suborders in the order. Etymology The goosefish family, Lophiidae, takes its name from its type genus, ''Lophius''. ''Lophius'' means "mane" and is presumably a reference to the first 3 spines of the first dorsal fin which are tentacle like, with 3 smaller spines behind them. Genera The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lophiiformes
The anglerfish are ray-finned fish in the order Lophiiformes (). Both the order's common and scientific name comes from the characteristic mode of predation, in which a modified dorsal fin ray acts as a lure for prey (akin to a human angler, and likened to a crest or "'' lophos''"). The modified fin ray, with the very tip being the esca and the length of the structure the illicium, is adapted to attract specific prey items across the families of anglerfish by using different luring methods. Anglerfish occur worldwide. The majority are bottom-dwellers, being demersal fish, while the aberrant deep-sea anglerfish are pelagic, (mostly) living high in the water column. Some live in the deep sea (such as the deep-sea anglerfish and sea toads), while others live in shallower waters, such as the frogfishes and some batfishes. Anglerfish are notable for their sexual dimorphism, which is sometimes extremely pronounced; the males may be several orders of magnitude smaller in mass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Marine Fish Of New Zealand
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or, in scientific literature, as an ''endemite''. Similarly, many species found in the Western ghats of India are examples of endemism. Endemism is an important concept in conservation biology for measuring biodiversity in a particular place and evaluating the risk of extinction for species. Endemism is also of interest in evolutionary biology, because it provides clues about how changes in the environment cause species to undergo range shifts (potentially expanding their range into a larger area or becomin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
