REVIEW
Abstract The species diversity of the Antarctic fish fauna changed notably during the 40 million years from the Eocene to the present. A taxonomically restricted and endemic modern fauna succeeded a taxonomically di-verse and cosmopolitan Eocene fauna. Although the Southern Ocean is 10 % of the worl...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.476.7428 http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/dbms-eastman/reprints/073 Eastman 2005 Polar Biol.pdf |
| Summary: | Abstract The species diversity of the Antarctic fish fauna changed notably during the 40 million years from the Eocene to the present. A taxonomically restricted and endemic modern fauna succeeded a taxonomically di-verse and cosmopolitan Eocene fauna. Although the Southern Ocean is 10 % of the world’s ocean, its current fish fauna consists of only 322 species, small considering the global diversity of 25,000–28,000 species. The fauna is ‘‘reasonably well-known’ ’ from a taxonomic perspective. This intermediate designation between ‘‘poorly known’ ’ and ‘‘well-known’ ’ indicates that new species are regularly being described. A conservative estimate of the number of undescribed species is 30–60; many of these may be liparids. On the Antarctic conti-nental shelf and upper slope the fauna includes 222 |
|---|