Chilean Devil Ray
The Chilean devil ray (''Mobula tarapacana''), also known as the box ray, greater Guinean mobula, sicklefin devil ray or the spiny mobula, is a species of ray in the family Mobulidae. It is often observed worldwide, basking just below the surface in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate oceans, mainly offshore, and occasionally appearing near the coast. It can reach a disc width of up to . Originally believed to be surface dwellers, ''Mobula tarapacana'' have been discovered to feed at depths of up to during deep dives; they are among the deepest-diving ocean animals. Their dives often follow a stepwise pattern, in which the ray dives deeply, then works its way back up by repeatedly "levelling up" for a bit and then moving higher. Sonar observations suggest that rays level up where there are denser layers of prey, suggesting that this is a foraging behavior. Rays display two distinct deep-dive patterns. The stepwise dive pattern, which is usually only performed once every 24 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rodolfo Amando Philippi
Rodolfo Amando (or Rudolph Amandus) Philippi (14 September 1808 – 23 July 1904) was a German–Chilean paleontologist and zoologist. Philippi contributed primarily to malacology and paleontology. His grandson, Rodulfo Amando Philippi Bañados (1905-1969), was also a zoologist and in order to avoid confusion in zoological nomenclature, the elder is referred to as "Philippi rumwiede to distinguish him from his grandson "Philippi añados. Early life Philippi was born in Charlottenburg, Berlin to Johann Wilhelm Eberhard Philippi, a Prussian government auditor, and his third wife Maria Anna Krumwiede (m. 1806). The father had five children from two earlier marriages and Philippi was the eldest from the third marriage. In 1818, Philippi, his younger brother Bernhard Eunom (1811–1852) and their mother went to Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, where they were educated at the Pestalozzian Institute founded by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827). The teaching included the use o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ray (fish)
Batoidea is a superorder of cartilaginous fishes, commonly known as rays. They and their close relatives, the sharks, comprise the subclass Elasmobranchii. Rays are the largest group of cartilaginous fishes, with well over 600 species in 26 families. Rays are distinguished by their flattened bodies, enlarged pectoral fins that are fused to the head, and gill slits that are placed on their ventral surfaces. Anatomy Batoids are flat-bodied, and, like sharks, are cartilaginous fish, meaning they have a boneless skeleton made of a tough, elastic cartilage. Most batoids have five ventral slot-like body openings called gill slits that lead from the gills, but the Hexatrygonidae have six. Batoid gill slits lie under the pectoral fins on the underside, whereas a shark's are on the sides of the head. Most batoids have a flat, disk-like body, with the exception of the guitarfishes and sawfishes, while most sharks have a spindle-shaped body. Many species of batoid have developed their p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mobulidae
The Mobulidae (manta rays and devilfishes) are a family of rays consisting mostly of large species living in the open ocean rather than on the sea bottom. Taxonomy The Mobulidae have been variously considered a subfamily of the Myliobatidae by some authors, and a distinct family by others, but recent work favors the latter. Two genera have been traditionally recognized, ''Manta'' and ''Mobula'', but recent DNA analysis shows that ''Mobula'' as traditionally recognized is paraphyletic to manta rays, making ''Manta'' a junior synonym of ''Mobula''. Fossil record Several genera of fossil mobulids are known, including ''Archaeomanta'', '' Burnhamia'', '' Eomobula'', and ''Paramobula ''Paramobula'' is an extinct genus of ray in the family Myliobatidae (eagle rays). The genus was erected by Pfeil in 1981 to accommodate a fossil species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of ...''. References Ray families Myliobatiformes ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Retia Mirabilia
A rete mirabile (Latin for "wonderful net"; plural retia mirabilia) is a complex of arteries and veins lying very close to each other, found in some vertebrates, mainly warm-blooded ones. The rete mirabile utilizes countercurrent blood flow within the net (blood flowing in opposite directions) to act as a countercurrent exchanger. It exchanges heat, ions, or gases between vessel walls so that the two bloodstreams within the rete maintain a gradient with respect to temperature, or concentration of gases or solutes. This term was coined by Galen. Effectiveness The effectiveness of retia is primarily determined by how readily the heat, ions, or gases can be exchanged. For a given length, they are most effective with respect to gases or heat, then small ions, and decreasingly so with respect to other substances. The retia can provide for extremely efficient exchanges. In bluefin tuna, for example, nearly all of the metabolic heat in the venous blood is transferred to the arterial ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Great White Sharks
The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. It is notable for its size, with larger female individuals growing to in length and in weight at maturity. However, most are smaller; males measure , and females measure on average. According to a 2014 study, the lifespan of great white sharks is estimated to be as long as 70 years or more, well above previous estimates, making it one of the longest lived cartilaginous fishes currently known. According to the same study, male great white sharks take 26 years to reach sexual maturity, while the females take 33 years to be ready to produce offspring. Great white sharks can swim at speeds of 25 km/h (16 mph) for short bursts and to depths of . The great white shark is an apex predator, as it has no known natural predators other than, on v ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mobula
''Mobula'' is a genus of rays in the family Mobulidae that is found worldwide in tropical and warm, temperate seas. Some authorities consider this to be a subfamily of the Myliobatidae (eagle rays). Their appearance is similar to that of manta rays, which are in the same family, and based on genetic and morphological evidence, the mantas belong in ''Mobula'' (they are traditionally in their own genus ''Manta''). Species of this genus are often collectively referred to as "devil rays", "flying mobula", or simply "flying rays", due to their propensity for breaching, sometimes in a spectacular manner. These rays gather in groups and leap out of the surface into the air up to around two metres before splashing back into the water. Depending on the species, the devil rays can attain widths up to , the largest being second only to the manta rays in size, which can reach . Despite their size, little is known about the devil rays, much of it anecdotal; the manta rays are better known. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fish Of Chile
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of living fish species are ray-finned fish, belonging to the class Actinopterygii, with around 99% of those being teleosts. The earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. Although they lacked a vertebrate, true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts. Fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. Many fish of the Paleozoic developed placodermi, external armor that protected them from predators. The first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many (such as sharks) became formidable marine predators rather than ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pantropical Fish
A pantropical ("all tropics") distribution is one which covers tropical regions of both hemispheres. Examples of species include caecilians, modern sirenians and the plant genera ''Acacia'' and ''Bacopa''. ''Neotropical'' is a zoogeographic term that covers a large part of the Americas, roughly from Mexico and the Caribbean southwards (including cold regions in southernmost South America). ''Palaeotropical'' refers to geographical occurrence. For a distribution to be palaeotropical a taxon must occur in tropical regions in the Old World. According to Takhtajan (1978), the following families have a pantropical distribution: Annonaceae, Hernandiaceae, Lauraceae, Piperaceae, Urticaceae, Dilleniaceae, Tetrameristaceae, Passifloraceae, Bombacaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Rhizophoraceae, Myrtaceae, Anacardiaceae, Sapindaceae, Malpighiaceae, Proteaceae, Bignoniaceae, Orchidaceae and Arecaceae.Takhtajan, A. (1986). ''Floristic Regions of the World''. (translated by T.J. Crovello & A. Cronqu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fish Described In 1892
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of living fish species are ray-finned fish, belonging to the class Actinopterygii, with around 99% of those being teleosts. The earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. Although they lacked a true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts. Fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. Many fish of the Paleozoic developed external armor that protected them from predators. The first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many (such as sharks) became formidable marine predators rather than just the prey of arthropods. Most fis ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |