Largest freshwater fish
Som In the 19th century. V Russia a common one was caught catfish (Silurus glanis) length 4.6 m and weight 336 kg. Nowadays, any freshwater fish whose length exceeds 1.83 m and weighs 90 kg is already considered large.
Smallest freshwater fish
Pandaka The smallest and lightest freshwater fish is the dwarf pandaka (Pandaka pygmaea). This one is colorless and almost transparent fish lives in lakes about. Luzon, Philippines. The body length of males is 7.5-9.9 mm, and the weight is only 4-5 mg.
The smallest commercial fish
Sinarapan (Mistichthys luzonensis), a species of goby that is endangered and lives only in Lake Buhi. Luzon, Philippines. Males are only 10-13mm in length and it takes 70,000 fish to produce a dried fish block weighing 454g.
Oldest fish
Eel In 1948 from an aquarium Helsingborg Museum, Sweden, reported the death of a female European eel (Anguilla anguilla) named Patty, who was 88 years old. It is believed that she was born in 1860 in the Sargasso Sea, North Atlantic, and was caught somewhere in the river at the age of 3.
The oldest goldfish
Goldfish There have been numerous reports from China of goldfish - goldfish (Carassius auratus) living for more than 50 years, but only a few of these reports can be considered reliable.
The most valuable fish
Beluga The most expensive fish is the Russian beluga (Huso huso). A female weighing 1,227 kg, caught in the Tikhaya Sosna River in 1324, produced 245 kg of the highest quality caviar, which would cost $200,000 today.
Carp Far Eastern carp (C. Carpio) 76 cm long, champion of the most prestigious nationwide Japanese koi show (koi -Japanese name carp) in 1976, 1977, 1979 and 1980, in 1982 it was sold for 17 million yen. In March 1986 this ornamental carp was purchased by Derry Evans, owner of the Kent Koi Centre, near Sevenoaks, c. Kent, UK, price not announced; After 5 months, the fish, which was 15 years old, died. She was made into a stuffed animal.
A fish that can climb a tree
Pineapple Pineapple, or creeper fish, native to South Asia, -the only fish, going out onto land and even climbing trees. She walks the earth in search of a more suitable habitat. Pineapple gills are adapted to absorb oxygen from moist atmospheric air.
The smallest toad
Black-breasted toad The smallest toad - black-breasted toad (Bufo taitanus beiranus), living in Africa. The largest specimen was 24 mm in length.
The smallest frog
Cuban dwarf The smallest frog and at the same time the smallest amphibian - Cuban dwarf (Sminthyllus limbatus), living in Cuba; The length of a fully developed individual from the tip of the muzzle to the anus is 0.85 - 1.2 cm.
The biggest toad
Yeah, the largest known toad - yeah (Bufo marinus), living in the tropical zone of South America and Australia. The weight of an average-sized specimen is 450 g. In 1991, according to measurements, the weight of a male of this species, named Prince, owned by Haken Forsberg from Akers Stickebroek, Sweden, was 2.65 kg, and the length from the tip of the muzzle to the anus was extended - 53.9 cm.
The largest frog
Goliath frog Goliath frog (Conraua goliath), caught in April 1989 by a resident of Seattle, PC. Washington, USA, by Andy Coffman in the Sanaga River, Cameroon, weighed 3.66 kg.
Do you know which animals have survived on our planet since ancient times? These mysterious creatures not only survived various cataclysms, but to this day continue to successfully prolong their lineage. and here is the first of them...
10. Hagfish
Judging by the fossilized remains, Hagfish existed more than three hundred million years ago, which automatically means that they inhabited our planet even before the first dinosaur set foot on it.
These animals are found in deep waters and are sometimes also called eels, which is fundamentally incorrect, since they have nothing to do with eels.
And that's not the whole point: the whole point is that Hagfish isn't even a fish. There are many things associated with this creature interesting facts: For example, having a skull, Hagfish does not have a spinal cord, but does have a second brain. Unclosed circulatory system has a main heart and three additional ones. They have virtually no vision, since their eyes are covered with skin, and they feed at night. However, they cannot be called completely blind - there are light-sensitive cells around the Hagfish cloaca. Hagfish is a pronounced predator, feeding on weakened animals falling to the seabed, into whose bodies it bites, eating out the entrails and muscles, using its powerful tongue with horny teeth. Sometimes they feed on worms.
Hagfish are a family of about 15 species. Fish are distributed in temperate and subtropical waters of the World Ocean.
Thanks to Hagfish being covered a huge amount mucus unique type, not a single fish living in the same Hagfish biotope is able to harm, especially in light of Hagfish’s ability to tie itself in a knot. In other words, whether other marine life likes it or not, natural enemies at Hagfish on seabed No. It lives in tropical and temperate waters of the world's oceans. Hagfish is part of the jawless family and is considered a living fossil. For the entire subphylum of vertebrates, this strange animal is considered basal. Hagfish has a fairly large body length - up to seventy centimeters. It is durable and can for a long time live without water, starve and remain alive even despite receiving serious injuries.
9. Lancetfish
The origin of this natural wonder is clearly prehistoric. Its more official name is a large-headed alepisaurus. He looks like he's armed sharp teeth a fierce predator equipped with a sail on its back that surprisingly resembles the back of a dinosaur. However, this is only an apparent similarity. In fact, this “sail” is just an enlarged dorsal fin. Despite this, even scientific name consonant with the names of giant lizards (Akepisaurus ferox).
The literal translation of the name Lancetfish means large-scale lizard. This animal reaches two meters in length and sometimes even more, and the alepisaurus weighs up to nine kilograms. It has been seen in tropical and subtropical waters in all oceans.
During migrations, adult individuals can reach temperate and even subarctic waters, swimming even to the areas of Greenland, Iceland, Kamchatka and the Bering and Okhotsk Seas. It can live at a depth of up to two kilometers. Unfortunately, alepisaurs have not been studied enough, but it is known that individuals that have not reached sexual maturity are hermaphrodites. Regarding adult individuals, there is currently no reliable information about their functional hermaphroditism.
8. Arowana
Arowana refers to such prehistoric sea life like Osteoglossids. This kind sea creatures lived back in the Jurassic period. Currently, fish of this species have been found in Australia, Asia, Africa and the Amazon. IN Lately Arowana began to be captured and preserved as aquarium inhabitants. This fish is an extremely greedy and voracious predator that devours any small animals, which even include bats and birds, which Arowana manages to catch right in flight. This ability is explained by the fact that Arowana can jump out of the water to a height of about two meters. In China, this fish is called the “dragon fish” because of its external resemblance to this character from Chinese mythology. In China they believe that good luck awaits the person who encounters this fish.
7. Frilled Shark
This sea predator is one of the most ancient primitive sharks that have survived to this day. This species appeared back in the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs ruled on land and beyond. These sharks were discovered quite recently. The length of their bodies reaches two meters. Sexual dimorphism expressed and the length of females is greater than the length of males. Frilled Shark lives on great depth and the basis of its diet is squid. These sharks do not pose any danger to humans and the majority of Frilled Sharks, fortunately, never see a person in their entire lives. Accordingly, these sharks are seen extremely rarely. In most cases, encounters with these fish are limited to scientists or fishermen noticing and recording dying or dead individuals that float to the surface of the ocean.
6. Sturgeon
Another survivor to this day prehistoric appearance is a sturgeon. There were sturgeons already in Jurassic period(85-70 million years ago) and general public known for being one of the main sources of black caviar. They are of great interest to science because they represent the subfamily of shovel-nosed animals (Scaphirhynchinae).
Representatives of this species are found on one side of the territory Central Asia, and on the other hand, in North American territories, which gives reason to see in living sturgeons the remains of a very widespread former time aquatic fauna. Currently, the sturgeon is under threat of complete extinction and is listed as such in the Red Book. Most major representatives sturgeon can reach a length of six meters in length.
The weight of individual individuals reached one and a half tons. There have been reports of individuals weighing two tons. Despite the fact that their size is approximately the same as that of most white sharks, sturgeons feed on small animals that live on the seabed and do not pose any danger to people. Characteristic feature sturgeon are its spiked scales located in rows along the sides and back, which makes this fish look like a knight. The similarity is enhanced by an elongated conical snout, reminiscent of a spear lowered to attack.
5. Arapaima
It is a close relative of the Arowana mentioned above. As many scientists suggest, the Amazonian Arapaima is the largest freshwater fish on our planet. If you believe the descriptions, the length of this fish can reach four and a half meters, but it is very difficult to verify this statement, since it is currently extremely difficult to find an adult Arapaima. Today, the average length of this fish is two meters.
Hosted by Arapaima predatory image life, feeding mainly on crustaceans and small fish, although on occasion they can eat anything that can fit in their mouth. Arapaima moves quite slowly and has such an interesting ability as the ability to exhale oxygen, just as animals from the cetacean family do. Arapaima does not pose any danger to humans, however, despite this, this unique look, like many others, is on the verge of extinction. These fish appeared in the Miocene period, but the subspecies it belongs to (Osteoglossidae) appeared on Earth much earlier.
4. Sawfish
The first representatives of this species appeared on Earth back in the Miocene period. Surprisingly, the sawfish has managed to survive to this day and can be found in rivers or at the bottom of the sea. Externally, the sawfish looks like a shark and reaches seven meters in length. The main weapon used by this predatory fish is a sensory organ covered with sensitive pores, thanks to which the sawfish is able to successfully hunt, despite the fact that its eyesight is very poor. In most cases, sawfish are completely safe for humans and do not show any interest in them, but if aggression is shown on their part and they feel threatened, they may attack.
Judging by the fossils found, giant prehistoric sawfish formed the basis of the diet of the largest predatory dinosaur of all time, Spinosaurus. This assumption is made based on the fact that a tooth belonging to this huge dinosaur was discovered in the vertebra of a giant sawfish.
3. Alligator Gar
This huge size, a predator covered with a scaly shell, was discovered on southern territories United States and in eastern and northern Mexico. Despite its name and appearance, the Alligator Gar is a fish that lives in fresh waters, although in in some cases he can swim in sea waters. Alligator Gar can reach four meters in length and weigh up to two hundred kilograms.
This fish got its name due to its long jaws equipped with two rows of teeth, and its appearance very similar to that of a reptile. Alligator Gar is extremely bloodthirsty predator, which, when hunting, prefers to ambush its prey. According to unconfirmed sources, Alligator Gar can attack humans, although no fatal attacks by this fish have been recorded to date. It must be said that Alligator Gar is one of the most ancient species of fish that live on our planet. The origins of Alligator Gar can be traced back to the Cretaceous period and may go back even further.
2. Polypterus Senegalus
When they talk about this inhabitant of the territory African continent fish, it is often mistakenly called a dinosaur. The reason for this confusion is the appearance worthy of a large reptile and the dorsal jagged fin, which only enhances the resemblance to the terrible giant lizards. Currently, Polypterus Senegalus is being caught for subsequent sale to aquarists, among whom keeping these exotic fish in an aquarium has become a fairly popular hobby.
Fortunately, this does not yet pose any threat to their population, since Polypterus senegalus is a fairly agile fish that is not easy to catch. Polypterus Senegalus is a fairly tenacious fish. For example, they are able to live without water for quite long periods of time and the only thing they need for this is for their skin to remain moist. When the skin dries out, the fish dies.
1.Coelacanth
Coelacanth is today a real star scientific world. This is not at all surprising, since he has every right to be considered the most known species fish inhabiting our planet since the prehistoric period and, accordingly, has the right to first place in this list, since for a very long period of time it was believed that representatives of this genus had long since become extinct, having left the waters of our planet. However, in 1938, the coelacanth was rediscovered.
Previously, it was believed that coelacanths became extinct in Cretaceous period along with dinosaurs, however, discovery in South Africa in 1938, a living specimen of this marine inhabitant turned the ideas of paleontologists upside down. Since then, enough has been discovered a large number of coelacanths as in the western part Indian Ocean with a center near the Comoros Islands, and not far from Indonesia, where the eastern population of coelacanths of another species lives.
The coelacanth's usual habitat is dark, deep waters, which has allowed them to remain undetected for a long time. Fortunately, the meat of this fish has a terrible taste and smell and is therefore not used as food anywhere. However, despite this, the population of coelacanths is under threat of extinction, since these already few fish are caught for the purpose of sale to collectors and because of the alleged healing properties coelacanth.
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On New Year's Day 1939, an old fishing trawler was fishing in coastal waters South Africa, near the city of East London. The catch was not good, and Captain Gosen decided to try his luck in the shallows near the mouth of the Chalumna River.
The trawl was pulled onto the deck. He brought about one and a half tons of various small items, two tons of sharks and... one strange fish, encased in a shell of thick scales. The fish's fins resembled paws. Only the first dorsal was the same as other fish.
And the tail of the strange fish was unusual: not two, but three-bladed! The fishermen realized that they had caught something very rare and brought their trophy to the local history museum. What happened next you can find out from interesting book“Old Quadruped”, published by Geographer in 1962. Science owes its author, Dr. J. Smith, the discovery of the oldest lobe-finned fish, which lived at the dawn of the history of the Earth and died out (so they thought) tens of millions of years ago. Its name is coelacanth.
The fish was about 150 centimeters long and weighed 57 kilograms. Professor J. Smith classified it as a coelacanth and in 1939 published a description of the new species. A new species of fish belonging to extinct “fossil” fish has been named coelacanth(Latimeria chalumnae), in honor of the museum curator Miss Courtenay-Latimer (well, some say in honor of the place where the fish was caught), who handed over the first caught specimen of fish to scientists. Later they found out that local fishermen had already caught lobe-finned fish and eaten them before.
Once upon a time, close relatives of the coelacanth crawled onto land, and from these restless “poachers” who violated the laws of nature, all land vertebrates descended: frogs, reptiles, animals, birds, and we are with you.
Fish crawled out of the water and began to live on land. The paw-like fins on the belly and chest of lobe-finned fish gradually turned into real limbs.
What reason prompted the fish, who, presumably, felt quite well in the water, to leave their native element? Lack of oxygen? No, there was enough oxygen. True, 300 million years ago, some lobe-finned fish no longer lived in the sea, but in freshwater swamps and lakes. But even here, if there was not enough oxygen in the musty water, they could rise to the surface and breathe clean air. After all, lobe-finned fish, in addition to gills, also had primitive lungs. Actually, not even the lungs, but the swim bladder, which served as the lungs. It filled up periodically atmospheric air, and its walls were penetrated by numerous blood vessels. Directly from the bubble, oxygen entered the blood. So, lack of oxygen could not be the reason that forced the fish to change their place of residence. Maybe they were driven to land by hunger? No, either, because the land at that time was more deserted and poorer in food than the seas and lakes.
Perhaps there is danger?
No, and not a danger, since Lobe-finned fish were the largest and most powerful predators in primitive lakes
The desire to stay in the water is what prompted the fish to leave the water! This sounds paradoxical, but this is exactly the conclusion that scientists came to after carefully studying everything possible reasons. The fact is that in that distant era, shallow land reservoirs often dried up. Lakes turned into swamps, swamps into puddles. Finally, under the scorching rays of the sun, the puddles dried up. Lobe-finned fish, which on their amazing fins were able to crawl well along the bottom so as not to die, had to look for new shelters, new puddles filled with water.
In search of water, fish had to crawl considerable distances along the shore. And those of them that crawled well and were better adapted to a land lifestyle survived. So gradually, thanks to harsh selection, the fish that were looking for water found a new home. They became inhabitants of two elements - water and land. Amphibians, or amphibians, arose, and from them reptiles, then birds and mammals. And finally, a man walked across the planet - a distant descendant of restless fish.
Lobe-finned fish appeared 406-360 million years ago and became extinct about 70 million years ago, scientists believe. Their fossils have been found in marine and fresh waters all over the planet. From the order of lobe-finned fishes, scientists distinguish 17 families. The fish had a length from 7 cm to 5 meters and were inactive. Lobe-finned fish had numerous conical teeth, which makes them serious predators.
Lobe-finned fish spent most of their time on the bottom, along which they moved with the help of fins.
The unusual structure of the fins gave the fish its name. As a result of moving along the bottom, these fish developed powerful muscles at the base of their fins. The skeleton of the fleshy fins consisted of several branched, brush-shaped segments, so scientists gave these “fossil” fish the name “lobe-finned.”
Modern scientists believe that the first amphibians came from freshwater lobe-finned animals, which came to land and gave rise to terrestrial vertebrates. This version of the emergence of living creatures from the sea onto land in the scientific world is not unambiguous and not indisputable, but the fact that a number of lobe-finned fish, for example, Tiktaalik, had a number of transitional characteristics that bring them closer to amphibians is a proven fact. Freshwater lobe-finned fish, for example, had double breathing: gill and pulmonary.
After the sensational discovery, everyone rushed to look for lobe-finned fish. And they found it! A population of 500 individuals of lobe-finned fish was discovered near the Comoros Islands. Nowadays, catching fish is allowed only for scientific purposes, and only about 200 specimens have been caught. People protect lobe-finned fish: it would be a crime to destroy a fish that was considered extinct and “resurrected” ancient origin. Coelacanth is taken under protection and included in the International Red Book.
Coelacanths live at a depth of 180-220 m. Like their distant ancestors, coelacanths are convinced predators, and in confirmation of this they have many sharp teeth in the oral cavity. During the day they usually hide in shelters and at night they hunt for fish and squid. The coelacanths themselves can become victims of hunters who are “more predatory” than them – large sharks.
The largest specimens of these coelacanths caught are 1.8 m long and weigh 95 kg. Scientists report that coelacanths grow slowly, but fortunately live for a long time. These living “relics” are not much different from the Mesozoic fossil coelacanths, their extinct cousins. The fish have a powerful tail and strong mobile paired fins, but the skull is filled with a fat-like substance, and the brains occupy no more than 1/1000 of its volume.
Coelacanth has 7 fins, 6 of them are strong, strong, well developed, resembling limbs (paws). During movement, the coelacanth stands on these paired fins and, fingering them like paws, moves. However, coelacanths lead sedentary lifestyle life, being almost all the time at the bottom of the sea.
Coelacanths are ovoviviparous. Their bright orange eggs, 9 cm in diameter, weigh up to 300 g. Pregnancy in coelacanths lasts about 13 months, and large eggs have a characteristic bright orange color. The body length of newborn cubs reaches 33 cm.
The coelacanth's body cavity contains a degenerated lung, but coelacanths completely lack internal nostrils and cannot breathe atmospheric oxygen. The entire body of these lobe-finned fish is covered with scales - bony plates of rhombic or round shape.
Scientists studying coelacanths, the descendants of the most ancient fish, have come to the conclusion that the ancient lobe-finned fish went in two directions in their development. The first way is the emergence of coelacanths. This line has survived to our time and appears before us in the guise of coelacanth. Other lobe-finned animals adapted to breathing in the air and crawled onto land on their strong, mobile fins; their descendants are probably terrestrial vertebrates.
These fish do not tolerate bright daylight and living outside the depths of the sea. However, in 1972, scientists managed to relocate a guest from the “past” to a research laboratory on the island of Madagascar. It was a small coelocanthus that weighed 10 kg and had a length of 90 cm. A unique living specimen of the lobe-finned fish lives in an aquarium in the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen. In 1986, Japanese scientists showed coelacanth on television. A unique film was shot: filming took place at a depth of more than 50m in the Indian Ocean near the Comoros Islands.
Many people know that most of the representatives of the animal world on our planet appeared long before homo sapiens. For example, snapping turtles even appeared on Earth before the dinosaurs. The earth is inhabited by millions of varieties of living beings. So different - animals remain faithful companions of people.
In 1952, another living specimen of the coelacanth was caught in the waters of Anjouan Island, part of the Comoros archipelago. Then it turned out that the Comorians have been fishing for this fish since ancient times and call it “gombessa”. And for them it is not a curiosity at all!
Thus, the range of the prehistoric cross-finned fish, resurrected from oblivion, was established - the western part of the Indian Ocean, the northern entrance to the Mozambique Strait. However, these boundaries, as we already know, turned out to be conditional.
And a few years later, scientists received actual evidence that the Comorian “Gombessa” was once seen in another ocean, off the coast of a completely different continent.
In 1964, the Belgian naturalist Maurice Steiner bought from a Spanish antiquarian a 17th-century silver medallion depicting a coelacanth, which was reproduced with amazing accuracy. But the most curious thing is that the medallion was not made in the Comoros Islands or even in Europe. Thousands of miles from the African and European shores - in Mexico. And this fact was confirmed for certain - through chemical analysis of silver and the establishment of a very characteristic Spanish-American method of minting and decorating jewelry, which was made precisely in the 17th century and only in the New World.
The French biologist Roman E. was also lucky. In 1993, in the town of Beloxi, Mississippi, just on the northern coast Gulf of Mexico, he acquired three large dried scales, reminiscent of medium-sized flat shells. They seemed to have been extracted from the scaly integument of one of the coelacanths described in detail by Smith in 1938 and 1952. And then there is the “raja laut”, almost exactly like two peas in a pod to the individuals classified by Smith. The only thing that distinguished the “sea king” from the island of Sulawesi from his Comorian relative was the color. The Sulawesi coelacanth had a distinct brown color with yellowish spots, and not the steel-blue color of the Comorian.
And finally, according to another French cryptozoologist, Michel Raynal, the range of the “raja laut” extends much further than the Sulawesi Sea. Anyway, oh mysterious fish, according to descriptions very similar to a coelacanth, Reynamo has been heard more than once from Philippine fishermen. And this is the Pacific Ocean!
So, the prehistoric representative of the lobe-finned fish is not an accidental or incredible find, but a full-fledged inhabitant of the world’s oceans of our time.
And in 2008, off the coast of the Indonesian province of North Sulawesi, a lobe-finned fish, the coelacanth, was caught, belonging to a species that was considered extinct 60 million years ago. This rare fortune fell into the hands of the fisherman Justinus Lahama and his son.
They kept the caught fish at home for an hour. And after they learned from neighbors about how rare and a curiosity it was, the coelacanth was released into a section of the sea fenced with a net, where it lived for another 17 hours. Scientists greeted this news with great surprise, ITAR-TASS reports. Lobe-finned fish live at a depth of 60 meters and outside of this environment can, as was until now believed, live no more than two hours. The coelacanth caught by Indonesian fishermen had a length of 131 cm and weighed 51 kg. The first time a lobe-finned fish was caught off the coast of Sulawesi was in 1998.
This happened 60 years after this fish with fins that vaguely resembled human arms or legs was first caught in December 1938 in South Africa near East London. Moreover, she also had the semblance of a lung. Before this incident, scientists had only found fossilized remains of lobe-fins. The first living coelacanth revolutionized paleontology. 400 million years ago, four-legged representatives of the earth's fauna formed from these creatures.
But in 2009, Indonesian and Japanese biologists showed unique underwater footage: they managed to film a living prehistoric fish - the coelacanth. Judging by the size, this is not an adult, but still a teenager. That is, coelacanths successfully live and reproduce at very great depths, where they are most comfortable.
sources
http://www.librero.ru
http://www.zooplandia.ru
And I’ll remind you, maybe not about such an ancient fish, but also interesting - or remember , and the beauty will not leave you indifferent. The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -
Sakhalin sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris)
The oldest living people are cartilaginous fish. They have a cartilaginous, often calcified skeleton, covered with tooth-like, or placoid, scales.* They lack a swim bladder. Appearing on our planet at the end of the Devonian period, cartilaginous fish initially took a dominant position, then many groups of these fish became extinct, but at present more than 700 species are known. For the most part These are well-known sharks and rays.
Sharks are grouped into 20 families, which include 350 species of fish, the gill slits of which are located on the sides of the body. Most sharks are active predators, although there are species that feed on plankton. The size range of sharks is unusually wide: from 15–40 cm, like spiny sharks and mustelids, to 15–20 m, like the world’s largest fish, the whale shark. Of course, in a home pond you can only keep the smallest sharks, which, by the way, even breed in captivity, and it is hardly possible to imagine anything more exotic in an apartment than a “domestic” shark.
Rays, unlike sharks, have gill openings only on the ventral side of the body. More than 300 species are known, grouped into 16 families. The size of these predominantly bottom-dwelling fish, that is, those that live at the very bottom, ranges from a few centimeters to 7 meters, and their weight reaches 2.5 tons. And Black Sea catfish, and the giant sea devil - manta ray, and the famous sawfish - all these are stingrays. The last one against all odds chilling According to the stories, it is not dangerous to humans, but uses its terrible saw to get food by digging in the mud. Among bony fishes, the most ancient representatives are the lobe-finned fish, which unite only 6 species of lungfish: 300–325 million years ago, lungfish widely inhabited the fresh, brackish and sea waters of the planet.
Stingray (Dasyatis pastinaca)
African representatives of lungfish - protopters - have paired lungs and are able to exist in completely dry bodies of water. These amazing fish spend up to nine months in a kind of cocoon in the ground, where, while hibernating, they completely switch to breathing atmospheric air.
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Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baeri) |
Russian sturgeon (Acipenser guldenstadti) |
Study of the most interesting biochemical processes that allow fish to live in such unusual conditions such a long time may have practical significance in astronautics, will help reveal the secrets of lethargic sleep and other mysteries of nature. The oldest bony fish include ray-finned fish, which also appeared in the Devonian period. They include the ancient ganoids, currently numbering only 45 species. Ganoid fish are distinguished by their peculiar diamond-shaped scales. The culmination of their development was the end of the Permian - the beginning of the Triassic period, 250–180 million years ago. The ganoids include modern sturgeons and many-feathered sturgeons. And if the remains of fossil sturgeons have been known since the Lower Jurassic time and are distributed only in the northern hemisphere, then the fossil ancestors of the polypiniformes have not been found, and they themselves represent a paleontological mystery.
Kaluga (Huso dauricus)
Sturgeon are the pride of our rivers; they live well and for a long time in aquariums, but for amateur reservoirs they are, of course, too big, and they can only be kept in at a young age, feeding bloodworms, chopped fish, meat.
Beluga (Huso huso) – left, Polypterus palmas – right
In the order of multi-feathers there is only one family - multi-feathers, numbering only 10 species of multi-feathers and 1 species of calamoikhts. The swim bladder in multi-feathered fish also serves for atmospheric respiration. If these fish are not given the opportunity to breathe air for more than two or three hours, the fish die, in ordinary language, as if drowning. Interestingly, wrapped in wet cloth, they live without water much longer than in water, but without access to air. Due to the fact that multi-feathered fish mature very late, their reproduction in aquariums has not yet been mastered, although these fish are undemanding and live a long time. Multifeather larvae have pronounced external gills (like tadpoles), which disappear over time. Most ancient fish are long-lived, both in nature and in aquariums. Ten years is a period of youth and even “childhood” for many of them.
Calamoichthys calabaricus
Currently the most common on our planet bony fish. They achieved extraordinary diversity 135–70 million years ago and maintain it to this day, representing more than 95 percent of the species composition of the ichthyofauna. Taking into account the specifics of freshwater and marine aquariums they will be discussed briefly in the following chapters.
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Here is a list (with photos) of ten prehistoric fish which were considered extinct. Feel free to mention in the comments those we excluded.
Hagfish
According to records, hagfish have been around for over 300 million years. These vertebrate predators feed mainly on fish, sometimes worms, live in relatively deep waters and reach a length of 45–70 cm. Hagfish are very tenacious, can go without water for a very long time, starve for a long time and remain alive for a long time with extremely severe wounds. A case is described when a fish, being decapitated, continued to swim for another 5 hours.
Alepisaurus
In ninth place in the ranking of prehistoric fish, which were considered extinct, is “Alepisaurus”. Agree, it looks very much like a fish that lived during the time of dinosaurs. Very little is known about their habitats, although they are widespread in all oceans except polar seas. Alepisaurus can reach a length of up to 2 meters. It is considered very voracious - it feeds on small fish and squid.
Aravanaceae - tropical family freshwater fish found in the Amazon basin, and in parts of Africa, Asia and Australia. They are voracious predators that feed on any small animals they can catch, including birds and bats(they can jump up to 2 meters). Often shown in public aquariums and zoos.
The frilled shark looks more like a strange one sea snake or an eel than a shark. This one is rare predatory fish lives in the deep waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, where it feeds mainly on squid and fish. They can reach a length of up to 2 meters (females are larger than males). The frilled shark is not dangerous to humans - most of these sharks spend their entire lives without seeing humans.
The largest species of sturgeon can grow up to 6 meters long (as the largest big representative white shark) and weigh up to 816 kg. They mostly stay close to the bottom, where they feed on small animals. It poses no danger to humans.
Arapaima
Arapaima is a tropical freshwater fish, considered one of the largest freshwater fish in the world - the length is usually up to 2 m, but some individuals reach 3 meters, and the weight of the largest arapaima caught was 200 kilograms. Lives in densely vegetated waters in South America in the Amazon River basin in Brazil, Guyana and Peru, where it feeds mainly on fish, as well as other small animals, including birds. Interesting feature This fish is that it must come to the surface every 5–20 minutes in order to breathe air (like cetaceans). Considered one of the most dangerous creatures of the Amazon.
Saw-nosed rays
Sawtooth rays are endangered and are found in the tropical regions of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, always close to the shore, sometimes swimming into riverbeds big rivers. Sawnose rays are very similar in appearance to sawnose sharks, but compared to sharks, rays are much larger and reach up to 7.6 meters in length. Mostly peaceful, but if provoked, the stingray can become extremely aggressive and dangerous.
Mississippi girt
Mississippian shellfish is a species of large predatory fish common in Northern and Central America. It is one of the largest freshwater fish (although sometimes it wanders into the sea): it reaches a length of 3–5 meters and weighs up to 150 kg. This is a voracious predator that can bite a young alligator in half with its jaws. To date, there are no confirmed, registered cases of human death from attacks by these fish.
In second place in the list of prehistoric fish considered extinct is the “Senegalese polyfin” - a freshwater predatory fish common in Africa, which is relatively small - 50 cm long. It has very poor eyesight. Polypterus hunts by smell and attacks all the fish it can swallow. This fish is also often kept in aquariums.
Coelacanth
Coelacanth is the most famous of all "living fossils" and deserves to be first on this list. These predators grow up to 2 meters and feed on small fish, including small sharks. They live in the deep dark waters at the eastern and south coast Africa and Indonesia. For 400 million years, coelacanths have remained virtually unchanged. They are endangered.
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