Chimaera
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.
24 branches of this genus, most-observed first · about 24 known species
rabbit fish
speciesChimaera monstrosa
Silver Chimaera
speciesChimaera phantasma
Waite's Ghost Shark
speciesChimaera ogilbyi
Giant Chimaera
speciesChimaera lignaria
Southern Chimaera
speciesChimaera fulva
Opal Chimaera
speciesChimaera opalescens
Cuban Chimaera
speciesChimaera cubana
Longspine Chimaera
speciesChimaera macrospina
Jordan's Chimaera
speciesChimaera jordani
Dark-mouth Chimaera
speciesChimaera buccanigella
Falkor Chimaera
speciesChimaera didierae
Seafarer's Chimaera
speciesChimaera willwatchi
Eastern Pacific Black Chimaera
speciesChimaera orientalis
Whitefin Chimaera
speciesChimaera argiloba
Thai Phantom Chimaera
speciesChimaera supapae
Starry Chimaera
speciesChimaera stellata
Veleroa subulata
speciesVeleroa subulata
Stubby Chimaera
speciesChimaera compacta
Cape Chimaera
speciesChimaera notafricana
Owston's Chimaera
speciesChimaera owstoni
Shortspine Chimaera
speciesChimaera obscura
Bahamas Chimaera
speciesChimaera bahamaensis
Leopard Chimaera
speciesChimaera panthera
Brown Chimaera
speciesChimaera carophila
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Chimaera 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 87419.