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Osprey Reef
Osprey Reef is a submerged atoll in the Coral Sea, northeast of Queensland, Australia. It is part of the Northwestern Group of the Coral Sea Islands. Osprey Reef is roughly oval in shape, measuring , and covers around . It has a perimeter of . The central lagoon is only deep. The reef sits atop a seamount in deep water. It is an isolated location some from other reefs. The almost vertical reef walls, which rise from a depth of about , are home to a dwarf form of ''Nautilus pompilius'' that is isolated from other nautilus populations by more than . ''Schindleria brevipinguis'', one of the world's smallest fish, is found in the Osprey Reef lagoon.Watson, W.,; Walker, H.J. (2004). ''Records of the Australian Museum'' 56: 139–142. The reef has no intertidal or emerged sand cay. The surrounding waters are part of the South Equatorial Current. The reef is protected within the Coral Sea Commonwealth Marine Reserve. Corals A 2009 expedition aimed to make discoveries in the de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osprey Reef Map
The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a Diurnality, diurnal, piscivore, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown on the upperparts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts. The osprey tolerates a wide variety of habitats, nesting in any location near a body of water providing an adequate food supply. It is found on all continents except Antarctica, although in South America it occurs only as a non-breeding bird migration, migrant. As its other common names suggest, the osprey's diet consists almost exclusively of fish. It possesses specialised physical characteristics and exhibits unique behaviour to assist in hunting and catching prey. As a result of these unique characteristics, it has been given its own Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic genus, ''Pandion'', and family (biology), family, Pandionidae. Taxonomy The osprey ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schindleria Brevipinguis
''Schindleria brevipinguis'' is a species of marine fish in family Gobiidae of Perciformes. Known as the stout infantfish, it is native to Australia's Great Barrier Reef and to Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea. Anatomy ''S. brevipinguis'' is among the smallest known fish in the world, together with species such as ''Paedocypris progenetica''. Males of ''S. brevipinguis'' have an average standard length of , a gravid female was and the maximum standard length of the species is . It held the record for the smallest known vertebrate, but now, by a measurement of snout-to-vent length, the smallest vertebrate species currently is the recently (Jan 2012) described frog ''Paedophryne amauensis'', while the parasitic males of the anglerfish ''Photocorynus spiniceps'' are but long. ''S. brevipinguis'' is distinguished from the similar '' S. praematura'' by having its first anal-fin ray further forward, under dorsal-fin 4, rather than 7–11 in ''S. praematura''. Like most closely rel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coral Reefs Of Australia
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton. A coral "group" is a colony of very many genetically identical polyps. Each polyp is a sac-like animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter and a few centimeters in height. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening. Each polyp excretes an exoskeleton near the base. Over many generations, the colony thus creates a skeleton characteristic of the species which can measure up to several meters in size. Individual colonies grow by asexual reproduction of polyps. Corals also breed sexually by spawning: polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously overnight, often around a full moon. Fertilized eggs form planulae, a mobile early form of the coral polyp which, when matu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
