Ecsenius Tessera
''Ecsenius tessera'' is a species of combtooth blenny in the genus ''Ecsenius''. It is found in coral reefs in the western Pacific ocean, around Vanuatu. It can reach a maximum length of 4.5 centimetres. Blennies in this species feed primarily off of plants, including benthic algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ... and weeds. References * Springer, V. G. 1988 (14 Sept.) ''The Indo-Pacific blenniid fish genus Ecsenius.'' Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology No. 465: i-iv + 1–134, col. Pls. 1-14. tessera Fish described in 1988 Taxa named by Victor G. Springer {{Blenniidae-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Victor Gruschka Springer
Victor Gruschka Springer (born in Jacksonville, Florida on 2 June 1928) is Senior Scientist emeritus, Division of Fishes at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He is a specialist in the anatomy, classification, and distribution of fishes, with a special interest in tropical marine shorefishes. He has published numerous scientific studies on these subjects; also, a popular book called "Sharks in Question, the Smithsonian Answer Book" 1989. Education Springer gained his first degree, B.A. in Biology at Emory University in 1948. His M.S. in Botany at the University of Miami in 1954 was followed by his Ph.D in Zoology at the University of Texas in 1957. Research Interests Springer's research interests include the classification, evolution, and biogeography of fishes, especially marine fishes and notably Blennioid fishes. He is also interested in late 19th and 20th Century scientific illustrators of fishes such as Charles Bradford ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Combtooth Blenny
Combtooth blennies are blenniiformids; percomorph marine fish of the family Blenniidae, part of the order Blenniiformes. They are the largest family of blennies with around 401 known species in 58 genera. Combtooth blennies are found in tropical and subtropical waters in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans; some species are also found in brackish and even freshwater environments. Description The body plan of the combtooth blennies is archetypal to all other blennioids; their blunt heads and eyes are large, with large continuous dorsal fins (which may have three to 17 spines). Their bodies are compressed, elongated, and scaleless; their small, slender pelvic fins (which are absent in only two species) are situated before their enlarged pectoral fins, and their tail fins are rounded. As their name would suggest, combtooth blennies are noted for the comb-like teeth lining their jaws. By far the largest species is the eel-like hairtail blenny at 53 cm in length; most ot ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ecsenius
''Ecsenius'' is a large genus of fish in the family Blenniidae. Several species, including ''Ecsenius midas'', the Midas blenny, and ''Ecsenius bicolor'', the bicolor blenny, are commonly sold at aquarium stores as pets. Species There are currently 53 recognized species in this genus: * '' Ecsenius aequalis'' V. G. Springer, 1988 (Fourline blenny) * '' Ecsenius alleni'' V. G. Springer, 1988 * '' Ecsenius aroni'' V. G. Springer, 1971 (Aron's blenny) * '' Ecsenius australianus'' V. G. Springer, 1988 (Australian blenny) * ''Ecsenius axelrodi'' V. G. Springer, 1988 (Axelrod's clown blenny) * '' Ecsenius bandanus'' V. G. Springer, 1971 (Banda comb-tooth) * '' Ecsenius bathi'' V. G. Springer, 1988 (Bath's comb-tooth) * ''Ecsenius bicolor'' ( F. Day, 1888) (Bicolor blenny) * '' Ecsenius bimaculatus'' V. G. Springer, 1971 * '' Ecsenius caeruliventris'' V. G. Springer & G. R. Allen, 2004 (Bluebelly blenny) * '' Ecsenius collettei'' V. G. Springer, 1972 (Collete's blenny) * '' E ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Coral Reef
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Coral belongs to the class Anthozoa in the animal phylum Cnidaria, which includes sea anemones and jellyfish. Unlike sea anemones, corals secrete hard carbonate exoskeletons that support and protect the coral. Most reefs grow best in warm, shallow, clear, sunny and agitated water. Coral reefs first appeared 485 million years ago, at the dawn of the Early Ordovician, displacing the microbial and sponge reefs of the Cambrian. Sometimes called ''rainforests of the sea'', shallow coral reefs form some of Earth's most diverse ecosystems. They occupy less than 0.1% of the world's ocean area, about half the area of France, yet they provide a home for at least 25% of all marine species, including fish, mollusks, worms, crustaceans, echinoderms, sp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continents of Asia and Oceania in the west and the Americas in the east. At in area (as defined with a southern Antarctic border), this largest division of the World Ocean—and, in turn, the hydrosphere—covers about 46% of Earth's water surface and about 32% of its total surface area, larger than Earth's entire land area combined .Pacific Ocean . '' Britannica Concise.'' 2008: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The centers of both the [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east of New Guinea, southeast of the Solomon Islands, and west of Fiji. Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. The first Europeans to visit the islands were a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós, who arrived on the largest island, Espíritu Santo, in 1606. Queirós claimed the archipelago for Spain, as part of the colonial Spanish East Indies, and named it . In the 1880s, France and the United Kingdom claimed parts of the archipelago, and in 1906, they agreed on a framework for jointly managing the archipelago as the New Hebrides through an Anglo-French condominium. An independence movement arose in the 1970s, and the Republic of Vanuatu was fou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Benthic
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "the depths." Organisms living in this zone are called benthos and include microorganisms (e.g., bacteria and fungi) as well as larger invertebrates, such as crustaceans and polychaetes. Organisms here generally live in close relationship with the substrate and many are permanently attached to the bottom. The benthic boundary layer, which includes the bottom layer of water and the uppermost layer of sediment directly influenced by the overlying water, is an integral part of the benthic zone, as it greatly influences the biological activity that takes place there. Examples of contact soil layers include sand bottoms, rocky outcrops, coral, and bay mud. Description Oceans The benthic region of the ocean begins at the shore line (intertidal ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Algae
Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular microalgae, such as ''Chlorella,'' ''Prototheca'' and the diatoms, to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelp, a large brown alga which may grow up to in length. Most are aquatic and autotrophic (they generate food internally) and lack many of the distinct cell and tissue types, such as stomata, xylem and phloem that are found in land plants. The largest and most complex marine algae are called seaweeds, while the most complex freshwater forms are the ''Charophyta'', a division of green algae which includes, for example, ''Spirogyra'' and stoneworts. No definition of algae is generally accepted. One definition is that algae "have chlorophyll ''a'' as their primary photosynthetic pigment and lack a sterile covering of cells around thei ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fish Described In 1988
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]   |