The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The Sea has played a central role in the history of Western civilization. Although the Mediterranean is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is usually referred to as a separate body of water. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago.
The Strait of Gibraltar, also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates the Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa.
Mediterranean cuisine is the food and methods of preparation used by the people of the Mediterranean Basin. The idea of a Mediterranean cuisine originates with the cookery writer Elizabeth David's book, A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950) and was amplified by other writers working in English. Many writers define the three core elements of the cuisine as the olive, wheat, and the grape, yielding olive oil, bread and pasta, and wine; other writers deny that the widely varied foods of the Mediterranean basin constitute a cuisine at all. A common definition of the geographical area, proposed by David, covered follows the distribution of the olive tree.
The tripodfish or tripod spiderfish, Bathypterois grallator, is a deep-sea benthic fish in the family Ipnopidae found at lower latitudes. It is now relatively well known from photographs and submersible observations, and seems to prefer to perch on the ooze using much elongated fin rays in the tail and two pelvic fins to stand, facing upstream with the pectoral fins turned forward so the outthrust projecting fin rays resemble multiple antennae, and are indeed used as tactile organs. B. grallator is hermaphroditic. At least 18 species are placed in the genus Bathypterois, several of which have similar appearance and behavior to B. grallator. B. grallator is the largest member of its genus, commonly exceeding a standard length of 30 cm (12 in) and reaching up to 43.4 cm (17.1 in).
Demersal fish, also known as groundfish, live and feed on or near the bottom of seas or lakes. They occupy the sea floors and lake beds, which usually consist of mud, sand, gravel or rocks. In coastal waters they are found on or near the continental shelf, and in deep waters they are found on or near the continental slope or along the continental rise. They are not generally found in the deepest waters, such as abyssal depths or on the abyssal plain, but they can be found around seamounts and islands. The word demersal comes from the Latin demergere, which means to sink.
The Ipnopidae are a family of fishes in the order Aulopiformes. They are small, slender fishes, with maximum length ranging from about 10 to 40 cm. They are found in temperate and tropical deep waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.
The feeler fish, Bathypterois longifilis, a grinner of the family Ipnopidae, is found around Australia and New Zealand.
A tripod is a three-legged support device.
The Mediterranean moray is a fish of the moray eel family. It has a long eel-like body and is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Its bite can be dangerous to humans.
Isopogon dubius, commonly known as pincushion coneflower, is a species of plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub with sharply-pointed, deeply lobed or pinnate leaves and more or less spherical heads of pink to reddish pink flowers.
The abyssal spiderfish, Bathypterois longipes, is a species of deepsea tripod fish, a demersal fish living on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, even on the abyssal plain. It is one of the deepest-dwelling fish known.
Bathypterois is a genus of deepsea tripod fishes. They are a diverse genus that belong to the greater family Ipnopidae and order Aulopiformes. They are distinguished by having two elongated pelvic fins and an elongated caudal fin, which allow them to move and stand on the ocean floor, much like a tripod, hence the common name. Bathypterois are distributed worldwide with some particular species of the genus having specialized environmental niches, such as lower dissolved oxygen concentrations. Bathypterois have a reduced eye size, highly specified extended fins, and a mouth adapted to filter feeding. They are filter feeders whose main food source is benthopelagic planktonic calanoid copepods, but some variation is seen with maturity in secondary food sources. Bathypterois use their three elongated fins for a wide range of motion from landing to standing on the ocean floor to catching prey, for which these fins serve as specialized perceptory organs. Bathypterois have both male and female gonads at once making, them simultaneous hermaphrodites, whose gonads go through five stages of development following seasonal autumn spawning.
Bathytyphlops is a genus of deepsea tripod fishes known only from the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
The dubious conger is an eel in the family Congridae. It was described by Charles Marcus Breder Jr. in 1927, originally under the genus Pseudoxenomystax. It is a marine, deep water-dwelling eel which is known from the western Atlantic Ocean, including the United States, the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and the Guianas. It dwells at a depth range of 128–886 meters. Males can reach a maximum total length of 44.3 centimetres (1.45 ft) centimeters.
Pliciloricus dubius is a marine Loriciferan species of genus Pliciloricus described by Higgins & Kristensen 1986.
Tripod fish is a common name for different species of fish:
Cedicus is a genus of araneomorph spiders in the family Cybaeidae, and was first described by Eugène Simon in 1875.
Lepidopus is a genus of fishes belonging to the family Trichiuridae.
Noroit Seamount is a seamount in the Caribbean Sea, in the Anegada Passage. It is also spelled Noroît Seamount after the French survey and research vessel RV Le Noroît which was operated by IFREMER. It is also known as Noroit Knoll. Several research projects are conducted in vicinity of Noroit Seamount.
