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Eunicella Papillosa
The nippled sea fan (''Eunicella papillosa''), is a species of gorgonian sea fan in the family Gorgoniidae. Description This fan is short and pale cream to orange in colour. It grows upright or in bushy masses, with irregular or frequent branches coming off the main basal stem. The branches are covered on all sides with many small bumps from which the polyps extend. It may grow up to 18 cm tall and have branches of 0.2 to 0.4 cm wide.Branch, G.M., Branch, M.L, Griffiths, C.L. and Beckley, L.E. 2010. ''Two Oceans: a guide to the marine life of southern Africa'' Distribution This sea fan is found only around the southern African coast from Lüderitz to Sodwana Bay in 1–360 m of water. Ecology This sea fan usually grows in areas sheltered from strong current. It is preyed upon by the whip fan nudibranch ''Duvaucelia odhneri'', is a species of dendronotid nudibranch. It is a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Tritoniidae. The specific name ''odhneri'' i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. Other ways of defining species include their karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology, behaviour or ecological niche. In addition, paleontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. The most recent rigorous estimate for the total number of species of eukaryotes is between 8 and 8.7 million. However, only about 14% of these had been described by 2011. All species (except viruses) are given a two-part name, a "binomial". The first part of a binomial is the genus to which the species belongs. The second part is called the specific name or the specific epithet (in botanical nomenclature, also sometimes i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Family (biology)
Family ( la, familia, plural ') 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". What belongs to a family—or if a described family should be recognized at all—are proposed and determined by practicing taxonomists. There are no hard rules for describing or recognizing a family, but in plants, they can be characterized on the basis of both vegetative and reproductive features of plant species. Taxonomists often take different positions about descriptions, and there may be no broad consensus across the scientific community for some time. The publishing of new data and opini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorgoniidae
Gorgoniidae is a family of soft corals, a member of the subclass Octocorallia in the phylum Cnidaria. Nearly all the genera and species are native to the east and west coasts of America. Characteristics Originally the members of the family Gorgoniidae included a much wider range of genera than it does now and was used for all of the horny Octocorallia. Now it is restricted to those species where the "calcareous spicules are less than 0.3 mm. in length, sculptured with regularly disposed girdles of complicated tubercles ('warts'), the anthocodiae are relatively unarmed, at most with but a few characteristically shaped flat rods en chevron beneath each tentacle, the horny axial cylinder is weakly loculated if at all, and is perforated by a relatively narrow, chambered central chord, and in which the branchlets are usually quite slender, with a thin cortex.''" The polyps are retractable and the stems have an axis of the protein gorgonin surrounding a narrow, hollow, cross-c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lüderitz
Lüderitz is a town in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It lies on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island. The town is known for its colonial architecture, including some Art Nouveau work, and for wildlife including seals, penguins, flamingos and ostriches. It is also home to a museum, and lies at the end of a decommissioned railway line to Keetmanshoop. The town is named after Adolf Lüderitz, founder of the German South West Africa colony. Economy and infrastructure The centre of Lüderitz' economic activity is the port, until the incorporation of the exclave Walvis Bay in 1994 the only suitable harbour on Namibia's coast. However, the harbour at Lüderitz has a comparatively shallow rock bottom, making it unusable for many modern ships. The recent addition of a new quay has allowed larger fishing vessels to dock at Lüderitz. The town has also re-styled itself in an attempt to lure tourists t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sodwana Bay
Sodwana Bay is a bay in South Africa on the KwaZulu Natal north coast, between St. Lucia and Lake Sibhayi. It is in the Sodwana Bay National Park, and the Maputaland Marine Reserve, and is a popular recreational diving destination. The term is commonly used to refer to both the marine reserve and the terrestrial park, as well as the geographical bay. Sodwana Bay National Park is a narrow strip of forested sand dunes located along the east coast. Proclaimed a national park in the 1950s, it is frequented by anglers and divers. Sodwana is situated in the Maputaland Marine Protected Area and is the only recreational scuba diving area along the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park (now renamed to iSimangaliso) coastline. Classified as one of the top dive sites in the world, the park is visited by some 35 000 scuba divers per year. The bay is near the southern end of the tropical western Indo-Pacific marine ecoregion, and reef-building corals are present. The reef complex is the habitat of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whip Fan Nudibranch
''Duvaucelia odhneri'', is a species of dendronotid nudibranch. It is a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Tritoniidae. The specific name ''odhneri'' is in honour of Swedish malacologist Nils Hjalmar Odhner. This species was originally described as ''Duvaucelia odhneri'' but this became a homonym of ''Tritonia odhneri'' Marcus, 1959 when the genus ''Duvaucelia'' was moved within ''Tritonia'' in 1983. In 2020 the genus ''Duvaucelia'' was brought back into use and the name reverted to the original combination of Tardy, 1963.Korshunova, T.; Martynov, A. (2020)Consolidated data on the phylogeny and evolution of the family Tritoniidae (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia) contribute to genera reassessment and clarify the taxonomic status of the neuroscience models ''Tritonia'' and ''Tochuina''.PLOS ONE. 15(11): e0242103. Distribution This species is found in the north Atlantic Ocean off the United Kingdom, Ireland and France. It is also reported from South Africa but DNA evidence suggests ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
