Notopteridae
Encyclopedia : N : NO : NOT : Notopteridae
The family Notopteridae contains eight species of osteoglossiform (bony-tongued) fishes, commonly known as featherbacks and knifefishes. They are small fishes living in freshwater or brackish environments in Africa and South-east Asia. They are elongated in shape and their fins run the length of the body, with the resulting appearance of a knife.
The name is from Greek noton meaning "back" and pteron meaning "fin".
There are eight species in four genera:
- Genus Chitala
- * Indochina Featherback, Chitala blanci (d'Aubenton, 1965).
- * Clown Knifefish, Chitala chitala (Hamilton, 1822).
- * Giant Featherback, Chitala lopis (Bleeker, 1851).
- * Clown Featherback, Chitala ornata (Gray, 1831).
- Genus Notopterus
- * Bronze Featherback, Notopterus notopterus (Pallas, 1769).
- Genus Papyrocranus
- * Reticulate Knifefish, Papyrocranus afer (Günther, 1868).
- * Papyrocranus congoensis (Nichols & La Monte, 1932).
- Genus Xenomystus
- * African Knifefish, Xenomystus nigri (Günther, 1868).
References
- ["Notopteridae"]. FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.