35-584: See text Ogcocephalidae is a family of anglerfish specifically adapted for a benthic lifestyle of crawling about on the seafloor. Ogcocephalid anglerfish are sometimes referred to as batfishes , deep-sea batfishes , handfishes , and seabats . They are found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide. They are mostly found at depths between 200 and 3,000 m (660 and 9,840 ft), but have been recorded as deep as 4,000 m (13,000 ft). A few species live in much shallower coastal waters and, exceptionally, may enter river estuaries. Ogcocephalidae
70-453: A Indo-Pacific clade, containing the remaining genera. Ogcocephalidae contains the following genera: Ogcocephaloidei batfishes are dorsoventrally compressed fishes similar in appearance to rays , with a large circular or triangular head (box-shaped in Coelophrys ), and a small tail. The flattened head and body of these fishes is often referred to as the "disc" and is made up of the head and
105-440: A continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea . Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods . The shelf surrounding an island is known as an insular shelf . The continental margin , between the continental shelf and the abyssal plain , comprises a steep continental slope, surrounded by the flatter continental rise , in which sediment from
140-636: A sister relationship between the sea toads and the Ogcocephalidae, however, was unable to identify any grouping that was a sister group to both the Chaunacidae and Ogcocephalidae nor did he find any osteological characters to support or otherwise their classification within the Antennariiformes. He, tentatively, retained both groups within the Antennarioidei even although he was unable to establish
175-450: A continental shelf differs significantly from the geological definition. UNCLOS states that the shelf extends to the limit of the continental margin , but no less than 200 nmi (370 km; 230 mi) and no more than 350 nmi (650 km; 400 mi) from the baseline . Thus inhabited volcanic islands such as the Canaries , which have no actual continental shelf, nonetheless have
210-809: A distance where the depth of waters admitted of resource exploitation were claimed by the marine nations that signed the Convention on the Continental Shelf drawn up by the UN's International Law Commission in 1958. This was partly superseded by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The 1982 convention created the 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) exclusive economic zone, plus continental shelf rights for states with physical continental shelves that extend beyond that distance. The legal definition of
245-464: A few exceptions, the shelf break is located at a remarkably uniform depth of roughly 140 m (460 ft); this is likely a hallmark of past ice ages, when sea level was lower than it is now. The continental slope is much steeper than the shelf; the average angle is 3°, but it can be as low as 1° or as high as 10°. The slope is often cut with submarine canyons . The physical mechanisms involved in forming these canyons were not well understood until
280-554: A lack of widespread consensus within the scientific community for extended periods. The continual publication of new data and diverse opinions plays a crucial role in facilitating adjustments and ultimately reaching a consensus over time. The naming of families is codified by various international bodies using the following suffixes: The taxonomic term familia was first used by French botanist Pierre Magnol in his Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum per tabulas disponuntur (1689) where he called
315-578: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Family (biology) Family ( Latin : familia , pl. : familiae ) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy . It is classified between order and genus . A family may be divided into subfamilies , which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to
350-469: Is evidence that changing wind, rainfall, and regional ocean currents in a warming ocean are having an effect on some shelf seas. Improved data collection via Integrated Ocean Observing Systems in shelf sea regions is making identification of these changes possible. Continental shelves teem with life because of the sunlight available in shallow waters, in contrast to the biotic desert of the oceans' abyssal plain . The pelagic (water column) environment of
385-464: The Genera Plantarum of George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker this word ordo was used for what now is given the rank of family. Families serve as valuable units for evolutionary, paleontological, and genetic studies due to their relatively greater stability compared to lower taxonomic levels like genera and species. Continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of
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#1732852588634420-476: The Persian Gulf . The average width of continental shelves is about 80 km (50 mi). The depth of the shelf also varies, but is generally limited to water shallower than 100 m (330 ft). The slope of the shelf is usually quite low, on the order of 0.5°; vertical relief is also minimal, at less than 20 m (66 ft). Though the continental shelf is treated as a physiographic province of
455-406: The abyssal plain . The continental shelf and the slope are part of the continental margin . The shelf area is commonly subdivided into the inner continental shelf , mid continental shelf , and outer continental shelf , each with their specific geomorphology and marine biology . The character of the shelf changes dramatically at the shelf break, where the continental slope begins. With
490-458: The ocean , it is not part of the deep ocean basin proper, but the flooded margins of the continent. Passive continental margins such as most of the Atlantic coasts have wide and shallow shelves, made of thick sedimentary wedges derived from long erosion of a neighboring continent. Active continental margins have narrow, relatively steep shelves, due to frequent earthquakes that move sediment to
525-414: The 1960s. Continental shelves cover an area of about 27 million km (10 million sq mi), equal to about 7% of the surface area of the oceans. The width of the continental shelf varies considerably—it is not uncommon for an area to have virtually no shelf at all, particularly where the forward edge of an advancing oceanic plate dives beneath continental crust in an offshore subduction zone such as off
560-410: The Law of the Sea , the name continental shelf was given a legal definition as the stretch of the seabed adjacent to the shores of a particular country to which it belongs. The shelf usually ends at a point of increasing slope (called the shelf break ). The sea floor below the break is the continental slope . Below the slope is the continental rise , which finally merges into the deep ocean floor,
595-461: The body as far as the axilla of the pelvic fins, the forward edge of the disc is made up of the extended bones of the operculum sweeping backwards from the cranium and surrounding the trunk on either side. The largest members of the family are approximately 50 cm (20 in) in standard length . The illicium (a modified dorsal fin ray on the front of the head supporting the esca , a bulbous lure) may be retracted into an illicial cavity above
630-678: The coast of Chile or the west coast of Sumatra . The largest shelf—the Siberian Shelf in the Arctic Ocean —stretches to 1,500 kilometers (930 mi) in width. The South China Sea lies over another extensive area of continental shelf, the Sunda Shelf , which joins Borneo , Sumatra, and Java to the Asian mainland. Other familiar bodies of water that overlie continental shelves are the North Sea and
665-567: The coast; sand is limited to shallow, wave-agitated waters, while silt and clays are deposited in quieter, deep water far offshore. These accumulate 15–40 centimetres (5.9–15.7 in) every millennium, much faster than deep-sea pelagic sediments . "Shelf seas" are the ocean waters on the continental shelf. Their motion is controlled by the combined influences of the tides , wind-forcing and brackish water formed from river inflows ( Regions of Freshwater Influence ). These regions can often be biologically highly productive due to mixing caused by
700-473: The continent above cascades down the slope and accumulates as a pile of sediment at the base of the slope. Extending as far as 500 km (310 mi) from the slope, it consists of thick sediments deposited by turbidity currents from the shelf and slope. The continental rise 's gradient is intermediate between the gradients of the slope and the shelf. Under the United Nations Convention on
735-420: The continental shelf constitutes the neritic zone , and the benthic (sea floor) province of the shelf is the sublittoral zone . The shelves make up less than 10% of the ocean, and a rough estimate suggests that only about 30% of the continental shelf sea floor receives enough sunlight to allow benthic photosynthesis. Though the shelves are usually fertile, if anoxic conditions prevail during sedimentation,
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#1732852588634770-418: The deep sea. The continental shelves are covered by terrigenous sediments ; that is, those derived from erosion of the continents. However, little of the sediment is from current rivers ; some 60–70% of the sediment on the world's shelves is relict sediment , deposited during the last ice age, when sea level was 100–120 m lower than it is now. Sediments usually become increasingly fine with distance from
805-433: The deposits may over geologic time become sources for fossil fuels . The continental shelf is the best understood part of the ocean floor, as it is relatively accessible. Most commercial exploitation of the sea, such as extraction of metallic ore, non-metallic ore, and hydrocarbons , takes place on the continental shelf. Sovereign rights over their continental shelves down to a depth of 100 m (330 ft) or to
840-583: The emergent neuromasts . Ogcocephaloidei batfishes are found in the Indian, Pacific and Western Atlantic Oceans, with 1 species present in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. These benthic fishes are found in tropical to subtropical waters. They are fishes of the outer continental shelf and the continental slope , typically found at depths between 1,500 and 3,000 m (4,900 and 9,800 ft), although one species has been found at 4,000 m (13,000 ft) and others have been found inshore and even within
875-542: The family Juglandaceae , but that family is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". The delineation of what constitutes a family— or whether a described family should be acknowledged— is established and decided upon by active taxonomists . There are not strict regulations for outlining or acknowledging a family, yet in the realm of plants, these classifications often rely on both the vegetative and reproductive characteristics of plant species. Taxonomists frequently hold varying perspectives on these descriptions, leading to
910-530: The family as a rank intermediate between order and genus was introduced by Pierre André Latreille in his Précis des caractères génériques des insectes, disposés dans un ordre naturel (1796). He used families (some of them were not named) in some but not in all his orders of "insects" (which then included all arthropods ). In nineteenth-century works such as the Prodromus of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and
945-468: The impression that these fishes have a covering of coarse hair. They may also be large and highly calcified , and set closely together to create the appearance of a carapace . They are elaborately shaped, some have bosses , others crests and others have a simple pyramidal shape with no strong relief but these are highly enlarged and have robust terminal spines. The scales along the lateral line are typical scales, sometimes boat shaped, with perforations for
980-655: The monophyly of the four families Regan classified in the Antennariiformes in 1912. In 1984 Pietsch classified the Ogcocephalidae in the monotypic suborder Ogcocephaloidei within the Lophiiformes. This is the classification followed by the 5th edition of Fishes of the World . The most basal genus in the Ogcocephalidae is Halieutaea and this is the sister group to the rest of the family. The remaining genera divide into two clades , an eastern Pacific/western Atlantic clade; including Ogccephalus , Zalieutes and Halieutichthys and
1015-435: The mouth. The pelvic and anal fins of many species are stout and thick-skinned, so as to support the body off the substrate. These fins also enable batfishes to walk on the seafloor, though the irregular shape of the fins causes most batfishes to swim awkwardly. Many species have large scales forming tubercules or bucklers which form an armour for the fish. These tubercles can be tiny and have long terminal spines, these create
1050-567: The seventy-six groups of plants he recognised in his tables families ( familiae ). The concept of rank at that time was not yet settled, and in the preface to the Prodromus Magnol spoke of uniting his families into larger genera , which is far from how the term is used today. In his work Philosophia Botanica published in 1751, Carl Linnaeus employed the term familia to categorize significant plant groups such as trees , herbs , ferns , palms , and so on. Notably, he restricted
1085-400: The shallower waters and the enhanced current speeds. Despite covering only about 8% of Earth's ocean surface area, shelf seas support 15–20% of global primary productivity . In temperate continental shelf seas, three distinctive oceanographic regimes are found, as a consequence of the interplay between surface heating, lateral buoyancy gradients (due to river inflow), and turbulent mixing by
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1120-455: The tides and to a lesser extent the wind. Indian Ocean shelf seas are dominated by major river systems, including the Ganges and Indus rivers. The shelf seas around New Zealand are complicated because the submerged continent of Zealandia creates wide plateaus. Shelf seas around Antarctica and the shores of the Arctic Ocean are influenced by sea ice production and polynya . There
1155-834: The upstream reaches of rivers. The species in the eastern Pacific/western Atlantic clades have the widest depth ranges with the "Old World" species being restricted to deeper waters. Ogcocephalidae fishes do have a luminous esca, as in some other groups of anglerfishes, but secretes a fluid, lasting approximately two minutes, thought to act as a chemical lure which attracts prey such as crabs, snails, shrimp, and small fish. Analysis of their stomach contents indicates that batfishes feed on fish, crustaceans, and polychaete worms. These fishes are assumed not to guard their eggs and, to date, all known larvae and post larvae are pelagic. Ogcocephalidae fishes are too small to be of interest to fisheries but some species have been kept in aquariums. This order Lophiiformes -related ( anglerfish ) article
1190-541: The use of this term solely within the book's morphological section, where he delved into discussions regarding the vegetative and generative aspects of plants. Subsequently, in French botanical publications, from Michel Adanson 's Familles naturelles des plantes (1763) and until the end of the 19th century, the word famille was used as a French equivalent of the Latin ordo (or ordo naturalis ). In zoology ,
1225-517: Was first proposed as a separate family, the Chaunacidae, by the American biologist David Starr Jordan in 1895. Charles Tate Regan placed this family within the division Antennariformes within his suborder Lophiodea when he classified the order Pediculati, his grouping of the toadfishes and anglerfishes. In 1981 Theodore Wells Pietsch III realized that the monophyly of Regan's 1912 groupings within his Lophoidea had not been confirmed. Pietsch proposed
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