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Happy Thursday everyone! Today's fish of the day is the chimaera!
The order chimera, scientific name Chimaeriformes are an order of cartilaginous fish loosely related to sharks, and just as old. Known by informal names such as ratfish, rabbitfish, spookfish, and the most well known: ghost shark. The closest living relatives for these fish are sharks and rays, but their last living relative died off more than 400 million years ago, in the paleozoic era.
Chimeras are made of soft bodies that have no discernible scales or denticles, however many hatchlings are born with rows of denticles across the back, before shedding with age. Like some species of sharks, the visible pores of the snout are used as electroreceptors, and used for hunting prey.
Chimera's live down as deep as 8,500 ft, or 2,600 m, however, there are exceptions with some occurring at depths shallower than 660 ft, Their diet consists of crustaceans and mollusks, although some, now extinct, used to be filter feeders before dying off. Many chimera's are so rare and hard to find that we know close to nothing about them.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday!