Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The banded knifefish (Gymnotus carapo) is a species of gymniform knifefish native to a wide range of freshwater habitats in South America. [1] It is the most widespread species of Gymnotus , [ 1 ] but it has frequently been confused with several relatives, including some found outside its range like the Central America G. maculosus .
[5] [9] Like other Neotropical knifefish, they often lose their tail due to attacks by predators or aggressive encounters with conspecifics, but they are able to regenerate it. [14] The largest Gymnotus are up to 100 cm (3.3 ft) in total length. [5] [9] Most species reach less than one-third that size and the smallest only around 10 cm (4 in) long.
Despite the name, the electric eel is a type of knifefish. The Gymnotiformes / dʒ ɪ m ˈ n ɒ t ɪ f ɔːr m iː z / are an order of teleost bony fishes commonly known as Neotropical knifefish or South American knifefish. They have long bodies and swim using undulations of their elongated anal fin.
Knifefish may refer to several knife-shaped fishes: The Neotropical or weakly electric knifefishes, order Gymnotiformes, containing five families: Family Gymnotidae (banded knifefishes and the electric eel) Family Rhamphichthyidae (sand knifefishes) Family Hypopomidae (bluntnose knifefishes) Family Sternopygidae (glass and rat-tail knifefishes)
Common names of fish can refer to a single species; to an entire group of species, such as a genus or family; or to multiple unrelated species or groups. Ambiguous common names are accompanied by their possible meanings. Scientific names for individual species and higher taxa are included in parentheses.
When the species now defined as Electrophorus electricus was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1766, based on early field research by Europeans in South America and specimens sent back to Europe for study, [3] [4] [5] he used the name Gymnotus electricus, placing it in the same genus as Gymnotus carapo (the banded knifefish).
Main page; Contents; Current events; Random article; About Wikipedia; Contact us; Pages for logged out editors learn more
When originally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1766, he used the name Gymnotus electricus, placing it in the same genus as Gymnotus carapo (banded knifefish) which he had described several years earlier. It was only about a century later, in 1864, that the electric eel was moved to its own genus Electrophorus by Theodore Gill. [5]