The Nature LibraryEN·ES
iNat·60451OrderAnimalia2,431 field observations
  1. Animals
  2. ›Chordates
  3. ›Vertebrates
  4. ›Cartilaginous Fishes
  5. ›Chimaeras
Chimaeras
Plate 1 of 9. (c) Viktor V. Grøtan, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Viktor V. Grøtan · via iNaturalist

Chimaeras

Chimaeriformes

Chimaeras are cartilaginous fish in the order Chimaeriformes (), known informally as ghost sharks, rat fish (not to be confused with rattails), spookfish, or rabbit fish; the last two names are also applied, respectively, to the ray-finned fish groups of Opisthoproctidae and Siganidae.

At one time a "diverse and abundant" group (based on the fossil record), their closest living relatives are sharks and rays, though their last common ancestor with them lived nearly 400 million years ago. Living species (aside from plough-nose chimaeras) are largely confined to deep water.

Continue reading on Wikipedia
§·

Where it lives

Recorded sightings

—

geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.

§·

In the stacks

Searching the stacks…

Every page naming Chimaeriformes in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 60451.