The zahnenzaun, or fence of teeth, is a semi-mythical creature living in the Llayan Great Lake. It's seen rarely enough that nobody knows what it looks like, just general impressions of brown fins and the holy shit teeth fencing off that gaping maw. It has been known to attack people, lending credence to its existence, but it still has almost Loch Ness Monster standing among those who don't live on the Great Lake.

In reality, the zahnenzaun is a freshwater shark, a bit smaller than a great white and a bit of a cross between a wobbegong and an eel, not much more than a mouth with a tail. It lives on the lake bottom where it feeds on other bottom feeders, out where the water is quite deep. It's mostly an ambush predator, hiding amongst the seaweed before launching itself in that way sea creatures do and taking down its prey. Very occasionally, when it hasn't eaten in a while and it's REALLY hungry, it'll pursue its prey up to the surface and breach the surface with a great gnashing of teeth before disappearing back to the depths. If it sees a fisher's legs standing there in the shallows, then so much easier for the zahnenzaun. As with saltwater sharks, though, they don't like the taste of humans so they'll invariably spit them out and swim away.

shark founded at papuan freshwater river

if it hasn't been asked already (sorry cannot figure out how to search)

chapter one of Alice in Wonderland: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/alice-I.html

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Closest match: Erpobdella octoculata genome assembly, chromosome: 7 Common name: Freshwater Leech

(image source)

Daily Ray Fact:

The Ocellate River Ray, also known as the peacock-eye stingray or black river stingray, is a species of freshwater stingray. It is the most widespread, ranging throughout much of the Río de la Plata, Amazon, Mearim and Orinoco basins in tropical and subtropical South America.

They weren’t kidding that Ocean sure can Endless

hihihi omg I was wondering if you did a Madam Coral stimboard if you haven't it'd look so beautiful 😭 I understand if not!

➺ A stimboard themed after Vera's Madame Coral costume, as requested 🌿 ➺ PSD: 🐟 ➺ 🌿 🪴 🌲/// 🐟 🦈 /// 🌿 🪴 🌿

Just wanted to show people the some of my favourite books I've read on the ocean as a recommendation for your future reading 😏

The Secret Life of Fish by Doug Mackay Hope

It has a few pages for each fish with really pretty illustrations. I love how it focuses on a variety of different freshwater and saltwater fish as well as appreciates the beauty and life of fish who are seen as more scary or ugly compared to others!🐟

Also I like the cover :)

How to Speak Whale by Tom Mustill

Very interesting book about (obviously) whale communication. I like how it goes into different studies of animals like monkeys, birds and dolphins to find his answer too. You can tell a lot of hardwork went into the book. I learnt loads about whale intelligence and anatomy reading this.🌊

Emperors of the Deep by William McKeever

Made me appreciate sharks so much more. It also goes into commercial fishing and not only how it affects sharks but the people on board. If you like sharks (which I've noticed more people are starting to) definitely read this.🦈

On the trail of the whale by Mark Carwardine

One of my favourite books ever. Its about a whale watcher going to different places across the world. The random pages full of whale photography from the author was my favourite thing about this book! Every picture was perfect especially when you knew the context/story behind it.🐳

Shell life on the seashore by Philip Street

This is the very first ocean related book I ever got. I loved collecting shells before my obsession with the sea began and this book told me all about the creatures that once lived in them. It focuses on molluscs (again obviously) and started me on sea slugs/snails and then octopuses until I got to the point of just loving every ocean creature there is. Without this book I wouldn't of started to appreciate the oceans and rivers ect as much as I do now.💕

The soul of an octopus by Sy Montgomery

This book made me really really love octopuses! It taught me about how they live and how intelligent they actually are. After reading this book it stopped them from being gross aliens for me and made me see how beautiful they were inside and outside. I also liked the little flipbook thing of an octopus swimming on the corner of all the pages🐙

Remarkably bright creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

This book is literally the one of only ocean themed book I've read that is fiction🥲 It made me cry so much but I won't spoil it just in case! It's about an old lady who lost her son a long time ago working as a cleaner in an aquarium where she meets an octopus that enjoys escaping his tank every night. Very sweet book with a happy ending.

I really recommend trying out a few of these books especially if you like fish!

hello tumblr fishposters

send me a fish in my ask box and i will write a poem about them

rb to share with more fish fans if u want <3

Today I learned there are true freshwater sharks (genus Glyphis).

Welcome to my fish sideblog, my name is Rowan, I'll be your fishposter tonight. How can I get you started?

This is where I post about fish stuff. If you'd like more than that, my main is @snowberry33, that's where I follow and like from and where I post multifandom bullshit along with fics I write. If you don't care about all that, you're in the right place.

I'm an amateur aquarium hobbyist, which is a lot of words for I like fish. I keep fish. I wanna go to fish school to learn more about fish so I can work with fish. You get the idea.

Questions about fish and keeping them are encouraged!!! My goal is to educate and promote the love and care of marine life with any knowledge I can offer. I also just like talking about fish! However, I am not a professional, I am literally just an autistic guy. Please keep that in mind!

My "specialty" is freshwater aquaria, as that's what I have experience with. I also love and know a lot about sharks! My knowledge on other marine life (mammals, cephalopods, crustaceans, etc) is limited, but I am learning, and I welcome new knowledge of all kinds!

Happy swimming!

why is he so gross like that

literally the happiest I have ever been was when I was a kid, and we were at the lake for summer vacation. I would wake up, grab the rusty bike from the shed and go to my cousin’s place down the dirt road. We would go collect the neighbors kids to play. There was a sandy beach there, we would go out on floaties or boards and just play in the water for hours. There were no parents around, they just trusted us to be fine on our own.

Orthacanthus is an extinct genus of fresh-water xenacanthid shark which lived throughout the rivers, swamps, lakes, and bayous of what is now Eurasia and North America during the Emsian of the early Devonian to the Carnian of the Late Triassic some 407 to 227 million years ago. The first remains of orthacanthus consisting of several neural spines and vertebrae were unearthed from carboniferous rocks in Great Britain by Dr. Louis Agassiz in 1836 which he described as a species of primitive skate. Several more spines and teeth would be found throughout England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Nova Scotia Canada, and Ohio USA but were variously assigned to Pleuracanthus and Diplodus. In 1848 a well preserved full body impression of an animal was unearthed near Ruppelsdorf Germany by Dr. Goldfuss who described and named the specimen as Xenacanthus. However additional findings in texas of both Orthacanthus and xenacanthus in the 1880s showed a marked distinction in both size and morphology between the two taxa. These prompted additional studies which showed the German impression to be of orthacanthus and that Dittodus, Didymodus, Diplodus to be synoynomous with orthacanthus and that pleuracanthus was already an established genus of beetles as such all previous pleuracathus fossils are now considered orthacanthus. Today 11 species of Orthacanthus are considered valid: O. gibbosus, O. arcuatus, O. buxieri, O. compressus, O. donnelljohnsi, O. gracilis, O. milleri, O. minor, O. platypternus, O. pustulosus, & O. texensis. Reaching upwards of 10ft (3m) in length, Orthacanthus had a number of features that distinguished it from modern sharks including a ribbon like dorsal fin which ran down nearly the entirety of the animals back, and had paired pectoral & pelvic fins and 4 anal fins. A distinctive spine projected from the back of the head which is speculated to have been venomous, perhaps in a similar manner to a sting ray or chimera. As a large aquatic predator Orthacanthus would have fed upon boney fish, placoderms, sharks and other cartilaginous fish, amphibians, aquatic reptiles, synapsids, and various invertebrates. Interestingly orthacanthus seems to have been a highly adaptable organism with smaller and younger individuals living in shallower waters like ponds, rivers, and streams, while larger older individuals dwelled in freshwater lakes, brackish swamps/ deltas, and even coastal waters.

Art by the following creators:

Orthacanthus: Christopher DiPiazza http://prehistoricbeastoftheweek.blogspot.com/2013/08/orthacanthus-prehistoric-animal-of-week.html

Orthacanthus: Connor Moore https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3do4b2

Orthacanthus: Alain Beneteau https://blog.everythingdinosaur.com/blog/_archives/2016/08/11/orthacanthus-was-a-cannibal.html

Orthacanthus and Xenacanthus: EsthervanHulsen https://www.deviantart.com/esthervanhulsen/art/Orthacanthus-and-Xenacanthus-772704178

Diving with Orthacanthus: HodariNundu https://www.deviantart.com/hodarinundu/art/Diving-with-Orthacanthus-798344700

i love that if i can't remember whether smth happened in the 90s or the 70s i can just say it happened in the 1900s & cover my bases in the most misleading way possible

Muskellunge are crazy as fuck. RESPECT!