Cybersurfari Animal Games

Fish : GARS

Gars are a small group of two genera and seven living species placed in a single family, Lepisosteidae, and order Lepisosteiformes. These gars should not be confused with teleost fishes of the families Belonidae and Hemiramphidae whose species are called gars in some countries. Living gars are restricted to eastern North America south to Costa Rica as well as Cuba and the Isia de Pines.

Fish : Paddlefishes

Paddlefishes are elongate fishes and are largely scaleless, having only a few scales on the upper lobe of the caudal fin. Their elongate snouts, flattened from top to bottom, make up 36 to 52 percent of the total length of the adult. Unlike that of gars, this elongation involves the beak and the snout and is covered with electroreceptors and supported by star-shaped bones. There are two living species, the American paddlefish Polyodon spathula of North America and the Chinese paddlefish Psephurus gladius. Only Polyodon has a fossil record, from the Paleocene of Montana. Related extinct genera are known from the Cretaceous period (145 to 65 million years ago) to the Eocene (57 to 37 million years ago) of North America.

Fish : Sturgeons

Sturgeons are unique among actinopterygians as they have five rows of bony plates on the body. They are elongate fishes with flattened snouts, a protractile mouth located under the head, and fleshy tentacle-like projections (barbels) used for searching the sediment for prey.

Fish : STURGEONS AND PADDLEFISHES

Sturgeons and paddlefishes are members of the order Acipenseriformes. The sturgeons, family Acipenseridae, and the paddlefishes, family Polyodontidae, are both confined to the northern hemisphere. They are united by a number of characters of a technical nature. Relatively few genera of fossil sturgeons and paddlefishes are known. They occur from the late Jurassic period (about 150 million years ago) to the Pleistocene epoch (2 million to 10,000 years ago) and are confined, like the living species, to the northern hemisphere.

Fish : BICHIRS AND THE REEDFISH

BICHIRS AND THE REEDFISH Together, bichirs and the reedfish are a small group of 11 species placed in their own family, Polypteridae, in the order Polyptenformes. Fossils are known from the Cretaceous period (145 to 65 million years ago) of Africa. Although fossils have been found in North Africa, the family is now confined to the freshwaters of tropical Africa and the Nile River system.

Fish: Bichirs & Their Allies

Bichirs & Their Allies Bichirs, sturgeons, paddlefishes, gars, and the bowfin are the living remnants of a diverse assemblage of extinct fishes. They have a worldwide freshwater and marine fossil record dating from the Permian period (285 to 245 million years ago) and, together with the teleost fishes, they make up the subclass Actinopterygii.

Fish: Anglerfishes : DEEPSEA ANGLERFISHES

DEEPSEA ANGLERFISHES The energy-saving way of life, achieved by luring instead of hunting, is especially advantageous in environments such as the free water masses of the deep sea, where food is scarce and populations very thinly spread. Two adaptations have enabled the deepsea anglerfishes (suborder Ceratioidei) to invade this dark and inhospitable regime: the development of a luminous bait and the achievement of a uniquely specialized sexual difference.

Fish: Anglerfishes: SEATOADS

SEATOADS Being in some ways intermediate between frog and batfishes, the seatoads (family Chaunacidae) are placed in a separate suborder, Chaunacoidei. They have a flabby balloon-shaped, pink body, densely covered with minute spines.

Fish: Anglerfishes: BATFISHES

BATFISHES In the batfishes (family Ogcocephalidae) the head and trunk are markedly broad and flattened, disk-shaped, or with a triangular outline, and have a solid armor of broad-based spines. Compared to goose- and frogfishes, the fin-spines of the head are greatly reduced. The lure consists of a very short bone completely embedded in the bait. The simple or tri-lobed bait is placed in the opening of a groove from which it can be pushed forward by the basal bone of the lure. The second spine is rudimentary and the third is lost. The shape and position of the pelvic and long, angular pectoral fins are well adapted for walking on the sea bottom.

Fish: Anglerfishes: FROGFISHES

FROGFISHES Frogfishes (suborder Antennarioidei) differ most distinctly from the goosefishes in having a high, slightly compressed head and body, and in lacking the series of spines just behind the head. In the typical frogfish the lure is thin and slender with a fleshy bait, while the second and third spine of the head are more or less covered by skin; the third spine looks somewhat like a pixie-cap riding on top of the head.