Comparison of the Antarctic and Arctic fish faunas ...

• Main Author: Eastman, Joseph T.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Société Française d'Ichtyologie 1997
• Subjects: Antarctic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Evolution, Fish diversity, Gadidae, Liparidae, Notothenioidei, PN, PS, Salmonidae, Taxonomy, Zoarcidae; Arctic; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Arctic Ocean; Antarctic Ocean; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.26028/cybium/1997-214-001; https://sfi-cybium.fr/fr/comparison-antarctic-and-arctic-fish-faunas

The Antarctic and Arctic fish faunas differ in age, endemism, taxonomic diversity, zoogeographic distinctiveness and physiological plasticity. The Antarctic fauna includes 274 species representing 49 families; the Arctic fauna 416 species in 96 families. Using 5% as a figure for recognition of dominant faunal elements, five groups account for about 74% of the Antarctic fauna (notothenioids, myctophids, liparids, zoarcids and gadiforms). With 35% of the species, notothenioids prevail in this assemblage. Together with the liparids, they are the only known example of an adaptive radiation of fish in a marine habitat. In the Arctic, six dominant groups comprise 58% of the fauna (zoarcoids, gadiforms, cottids, salmonids, pleuronectiforms and chondrichthyans). In the coldest water at the highest latitudes (> 65°S or N), only zoarcids and liparids are shared by both faunas. In the Antarctic species, endemism is 88% for the benthic fauna of the shelf and upper slope (174 species) and rises to 97% when only ...