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Pale Toadfish

Ambophthalmos angustus
The Pale Toadfish is a deep sea species that belongs to a Saltwater-dwelling Family of fish sometimes called "Fatheads." It's pretty easy to see why-- these underwater creatures have very large heads compared to the rest of their bodies.

This particular Fathead is found only around the islands of New Zealand. Their depth range is usually between 550 and 650m down, though they will occasionally be found both deeper and shallower. They measure around a foot long.

Unfortunately, there is little else known about the pale Toadfish, or even about their entire family! Today's animal article just goes to show how much is still out there in the oceans, waiting to be studied and cataloged! Just this past week an estimate came out saying that only about 1/3 of all the life in the ocean has been named. And the Pale Toadfish shows that even when something is named, it may still not be very well known. There is still so much to learn, and hopefully someday we can come back to this interesting looking animal and know more about it!
IUCN Status : Not Listed
Location : New Zealand
Size : Length up to 1ft (30cm)
Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Actinopterygii -- Order : Scorpaeniformes
Family : Psychrolutidae -- Genus : Ambophthalmos -- Species : A. angustus
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Comments

  1. IvaNovember 17, 2012 at 7:59 PM

    A kind of "Fathead" fish that's called the "Pale Toadfish"? I wonder how it feels about that classification.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LaurenNovember 18, 2012 at 7:13 PM

      Fathead is the name for the whole family, and best I can tell "Taodfish" just refers to this guy and the other members of it's genus. Common names can be so weird (which is why thankfully we have a universal system for all the scientific, taxonomic names)

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