Plownose chimeras

Plownose chimeras
	Callorhinchus milii
Systematics
Class :	Cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes)
Subclass :	Holocephali
Superordinate :	Holocephalimorpha
Order :	Sea cats (Chimaeriformes)
Family :	Plownose chimeras
Genre :	Plownose chimeras
Scientific name of the family
	Callorhinchidae
	Garman , 1901
Scientific name of the genus
	Callorhinchus
	Fleming , 1822

Callorhinchus callorynchus

The plownose or elephant nose chimeras ( Callorhinchus ) ( Gr .:, Kallis = beautiful, rhyngchos = snout) are a genus of cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes).

features

Plownose chimeras are 90 to 125 centimeters long. They are characterized by a flexible skin appendage reminiscent of a ploughshare on their trunk-shaped, elongated snout. The function of the organ is not known, but probably serves to search for food in the soft ground. There the animals prefer to feed on shell-bearing invertebrates such as snails and mussels . Your eyes are small, the lateral line organ closed. In contrast to the other sea cats, plownose chimera have a distinctly heterocerque caudal fin with a distinct ventral lobe.

The egg capsules of the plownose chimera are large, typically 27 × 13 cm.

distribution

Plownose chimera live in the southern hemisphere of the earth in the seas around southern South America , South Africa , South Australia and New Zealand . They are not downright deep-sea fish, like the species of the other two sea cat families, but live on the continental shelf to a depth of 180 meters.

species

There are three known types:

Callorhinchus callorynchus Linnaeus, 1758
Callorhinchus capensis Duméril, 1865
Callorhinchus milii Bory de Saint-Vincent, 1823

Tribal history

Ischyodus avitus

The genus is known fossil from the Eocene of Antarctica . In addition to the recent genus, four other genera of the Callorhinchidae family are assigned, Brachymylus , Ischyodus ( Jura ), Pachymylus and Edaphodon . The four genera are placed in their own subfamily, the Edaphodontinae.

Hazardous situation

All three species of the genus plownose chimera are included in the Red List of Endangered Species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ). They are currently assessed as Least Concern .

literature

Joseph S. Nelson : Fishes of the World . John Wiley & Sons, 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7 .
Kurt Fiedler: Textbook of Special Zoology, Volume II, Part 2: Fish . Gustav Fischer Verlag Jena, 1991, ISBN 3-334-00339-6 .

Individual evidence

↑ EE Di Giacomo and MR Perier (1996): "Feeding habits of cockfish, Callorhinchus callorhynchus (Holocephali: Callorhynchidae), in Patagonian waters (Argentina)". Marine and Freshwater Research 47 (6) 801-808 . Abstract
↑ ITIS report online query for Callorhinchus. Integrated Taxonomy Information System, accessed March 6, 2010 .
↑ Callorhinchus in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2009. Accessed March 6, 2010.

Web links

Commons : Plownose Chimera - collection of images, videos and audio files

Plownose chimera on Fishbase.org (English)
Callorhinchus on Fishbase.org (English)
PLoS article describing survey sequencing of the plownose chimera genome

[1] EE Di Giacomo and MR Perier (1996): "Feeding habits of cockfish, Callorhinchus callorhynchus (Holocephali: Callorhynchidae), in Patagonian waters (Argentina)". Marine and Freshwater Research 47 (6) 801-808 . Abstract

[2] ITIS report online query for Callorhinchus. Integrated Taxonomy Information System, accessed March 6, 2010 .

[3] Callorhinchus in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2009. Accessed March 6, 2010.