Chimaera monstrosa Cladus: Eukaryota Name Chimaera monstrosa (Linnaeus,1758) Synonyms * Chimaera argentea (Ascanius, 1772) References * Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema Naturae, Ed. X. (Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata.) Holmiae. Systema Nat. ed. 10 i-ii + 1-824 --------- Chimaera monstrosa, also known as the rabbit fish or rat fish, is a species of fish in the Chimaeridae family. Anatomy and appearance The Rat Fish can grow up to 1,5 meters long, and weigh 2,5 kg. The color is brown, with marmor-white stripes in all directions. The eyes are big with a green lens. The Lateral line can be seen clearly on the head. On the dorsal fin the rat fish has a poisonous spike, that can cause a lot of pain. Distribution and habitat The "Rat Fish" lives on depths from 50 – 1000 meters. Sick or dying fish is sometimes observed in shallower water. It's distributed from the eastern-Atlantic, from west-Africa all the way up to northern-Norway and Iceland. They are also reported in the western parts of the Mediterranean sea. Another species located south of Africa is also possibly a Rat Fish. References * Dagit, D.D. & Caldas, J.P. 2007. Chimaera monstrosa. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 2009-01-02. Source: Wikipedia, Wikispecies: All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License |
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