Chimaera
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Chimaera
Chimaeras are cartilaginous fish in the order Chimaeriformes , known informally as ghost sharks, rat fish, spookfish, or rabbit fish; the last three names are not to be confused with rattails, Opisthoproctidae, or Siganidae, respectively. At one time a "diverse and abundant" group (based on the fossil record), their closest living relatives are sharks and rays, though their last common ancestor with them lived nearly 400 million years ago. Today, they are largely confined to deep water. Description and habits Chimaeras live in temperate ocean floors down to deep, with few occurring at depths shallower than . Exceptions include the members of the genus ''Callorhinchus'', the rabbit fish and the spotted ratfish, which locally or periodically can be found at shallower depths. Consequently, these are also among the few species from the chimaera order kept in public aquaria. They live in all the oceans except for the Arctic and Antarctic oceans. They have elongated, soft ...
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Callorhinchidae
Chimaeras are cartilaginous fish in the order Chimaeriformes , known informally as ghost sharks, rat fish, spookfish, or rabbit fish; the last three names are not to be confused with rattails, Opisthoproctidae, or Siganidae, respectively. At one time a "diverse and abundant" group (based on the fossil record), their closest living relatives are sharks and rays, though their last common ancestor with them lived nearly 400 million years ago. Today, they are largely confined to deep water. Description and habits Chimaeras live in temperate ocean floors down to deep, with few occurring at depths shallower than . Exceptions include the members of the genus ''Callorhinchus'', the rabbit fish and the spotted ratfish, which locally or periodically can be found at shallower depths. Consequently, these are also among the few species from the chimaera order kept in public aquaria. They live in all the oceans except for the Arctic and Antarctic oceans. They have elongated, soft ...
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Chimaeridae
The Chimaeridae, or short-nosed chimaeras, are a family of cartilaginous fish. They resemble other chimaeras in general form and habits, but have short, rounded snouts, without the modifications found in related families. Many species have long, tapering tails, giving them an alternative name of ratfish. Shortnose chimaeras have a venomous spine on their backs, which is sufficiently dangerous to injure humans. They are found in temperate and tropical marine waters worldwide. Most species are restricted to depths below , but a few, notably the spotted ratfish and rabbit fish, can locally be found at relatively shallow depths. They range from in maximum total length, depending on species. Species The species are grouped into two genera and include: Family Chimaeridae * Genus ''Chimaera'' Linnaeus, 1758 ** '' Chimaera argiloba'' Last, W. T. White & Pogonoski, 2008 (whitefin chimaera) ** '' Chimaera bahamaensis'' Kemper, Ebert, Didier & Compagno, 2010 (Bahamas ghostshark ...
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Chimaera Monstrosa
''Chimaera monstrosa'', also known as the rabbit fish or rat fish, is a northeast Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean species of cartilaginous fish in the family Chimaeridae. The rabbit fish is known for its characteristically large head and small, tapering body. With large eyes, nostrils, and tooth plates, the head gives them a rabbit-like appearance, hence the nickname “Rabbit fish”. They can grow to and live for up to 30 years. Description The appearance of ''C. monstrosa'' shares characteristics of its distant relatives, sharks. It characteristically has a large head and a tapering body that ends in its whip-like tail, and has a short snout with an overhanging mouth. The top dorsal fin is positioned high on the spine of the fish, and is triangular and tall in height. Positioned in the mid-section of the fish, the spine runs throughout the length of the fish and continuously joins with the upper part of the caudal fin; this dorsal spine is als ...
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Chondrichthyes
Chondrichthyes (; ) is a class that contains the cartilaginous fishes that have skeletons primarily composed of cartilage. They can be contrasted with the Osteichthyes or ''bony fishes'', which have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. Chondrichthyes are jawed vertebrates with paired fins, paired nares, scales, and a heart with its chambers in series. Extant chondrichthyes range in size from the 10 cm (3.9 in) finless sleeper ray to the 10 m (32 ft) whale shark. The class is divided into two subclasses: Elasmobranchii (sharks, rays, skates, and sawfish) and Holocephali ( chimaeras, sometimes called ghost sharks, which are sometimes separated into their own class). Within the infraphylum Gnathostomata, cartilaginous fishes are distinct from all other jawed vertebrates. Anatomy Skeleton The skeleton is cartilaginous. The notochord is gradually replaced by a vertebral column during development, except in Holocephali, where the notochord stays intact. In some deepwat ...
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Spotted Ratfish
The spotted ratfish (''Hydrolagus colliei'') is a chimaera found in the north-eastern Pacific Ocean. Often seen by divers at night in the Pacific Northwest, this cartilaginous fish gets its characteristic name from a pointed rat-like tail. The ratfish lays leathery egg cases on the bottom of muddy or sandy areas, which are often mistaken by divers as something inanimate. While mainly a deep-water species, it occurs at shallower depths in the northern part of its range. The generic name, ''Hydrolagus'', comes from the Greek words ὕδωρ, meaning water,Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press. and λαγώς/λαγῶς, meaning hare, and the specific name honors Alexander Collie, who was a ship surgeon and early naturalist. The spotted ratfish is common in much of its range, not typically eaten by humans, and is not commercially c ...
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Hydrolagus Colliei
The spotted ratfish (''Hydrolagus colliei'') is a chimaera found in the north-eastern Pacific Ocean. Often seen by divers at night in the Pacific Northwest, this cartilaginous fish gets its characteristic name from a pointed rat-like tail. The ratfish lays leathery egg cases on the bottom of muddy or sandy areas, which are often mistaken by divers as something inanimate. While mainly a deep-water species, it occurs at shallower depths in the northern part of its range. The generic name, ''Hydrolagus'', comes from the Greek words ὕδωρ, meaning water,Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press. and λαγώς/λαγῶς, meaning hare, and the specific name honors Alexander Collie, who was a ship surgeon and early naturalist. The spotted ratfish is common in much of its range, not typically eaten by humans, and is not commercially ...
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Rhinochimaeridae
The Rhinochimaeridae, commonly known as long-nosed chimaeras, are a family (biology), family of cartilaginous fish. They are similar in form and habits to other chimaeras, but have an exceptionally long conical or paddle-shaped snout. The snout has numerous sensory nerve endings, and is used to find food such as small fish. The first dorsal fin includes a mildly venomous spine, used in defense. Long-nosed chimaeras are found in temperate and tropical seas worldwide, from in depth. In August 2020, a long-nosed chimaera was brought up from off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. They range from in maximum total length, depending on species. Species The eight known species are in three genera: Family Rhinochimaeridae * Genus ''Harriotta'' George Brown Goode, Goode & Tarleton Hoffman Bean, Bean, 1895 ** ''Harriotta haeckeli'' Karrer, 1972 (smallspine spookfish) ** ''Harriotta raleighana'' Goode & Bean, 1895 (narrownose chimaera) * Genus ''Neoharriotta'' Henry Bryant Bigelow, ...
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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 ...
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Rabbitfish
Rabbitfishes or spinefoots are perciform fishes in the family Siganidae. The 29 species are in a single genus, ''Siganus''. In some now obsolete classifications, the species having prominent face stripes—colloquially called foxfaces–are in the genus ''Lo''. Other species, such as the masked spinefoot (''S. puellus''), show a reduced form of the stripe pattern. Rabbitfishes are native to shallow waters in the Indo-Pacific, but '' S. luridus'' and '' S. rivulatus'' have become established in the eastern Mediterranean via Lessepsian migration. They are commercially important food fish, and can be used in the preparation of dishes such as ''bagoong''. Taxonomy The Siganidae was first formally described as a family in 1837 by the Scottish naval surgeon, naturalist and arctic explorer Sir John Richardson. The genus ''Siganus'' was described in 1775 by the Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius with ''Siganus rivulatus'', a species also described by Fabricius in 1775 ...
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Gill
A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are kept moist. The microscopic structure of a gill presents a large surface area to the external environment. Branchia (pl. branchiae) is the zoologists' name for gills (from Ancient Greek ). With the exception of some aquatic insects, the filaments and lamellae (folds) contain blood or coelomic fluid, from which gases are exchanged through the thin walls. The blood carries oxygen to other parts of the body. Carbon dioxide passes from the blood through the thin gill tissue into the water. Gills or gill-like organs, located in different parts of the body, are found in various groups of aquatic animals, including mollusks, crustaceans, insects, fish, and amphibians. Semiterrestrial marine animals such as crabs and mudskippers have gill cham ...
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Shark
Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorpha (or Selachii) and are the sister group to the rays. However, the term "shark" has also been used to refer to all extinct members of Chondrichthyes with a shark-like morphology, such as hybodonts and xenacanths. The oldest modern sharks are known from the Early Jurassic. They range in size from the small dwarf lanternshark (''Etmopterus perryi''), a deep sea species that is only in length, to the whale shark (''Rhincodon typus''), the largest fish in the world, which reaches approximately in length. Sharks are found in all seas and are common to depths up to . They generally do not live in freshwater, although there are a few known exceptions, such as the bull shark and the river shark, which can be found in both seawater and fresh ...
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Spine (zoology)
In a zoological context, spines are hard, needle-like anatomical structures found in both vertebrate and invertebrate species. The spines of most spiny mammals are modified hairs, with a spongy center covered in a thick, hard layer of keratin and a sharp, sometimes barbed tip. Occurrence Mammals Spines in mammals include the prickles of hedgehogs and among rodents, the quills of both New World and Old World porcupines as well as the prickly fur of spiny mice, spiny pocket mice and spiny rats. They are also found on afrotherian tenrecs, marsupial spiny bandicoots and on echidnas, of the monotremes. An ancient synapsid, '' Dimetrodon'', had extremely long spines on its backbone that were joined together with a web of skin that formed a sail-like structure. Many mammalian species, like cats and fossas, also have penile spines. The Mesozoic eutriconodont mammal ''Spinolestes'' already displayed spines similar to those of modern spiny mice. Fish Spines are found in the rays o ...
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