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Bathysidus pentagrammus, the five-lined constellation fish, is a hypothetical species of fish that was described by William Beebe on 11 August 1934, being spotted by the biologist as he descended to a depth of 580 metres (1900 feet) of the coast of Bermuda. [1]
The "bathysphere" was a new invention, being a rounded steel enclosure with space for two people, a 3 cm (1.2 in) thick external hull, and a single window, 15 cm (5.9 in) in diameter. Maneuverability was solely dependent on the ship it was tethered to. Beebe had no camera with him and instead described the species in detail to Else Bostelmann, an artist who proceeded to illustrate his findings. [2]
"A small school of luminous fish had just passed, when, fortunately at a moment of suspension, came a new and gorgeous creature."
William Beebe, Half Mile Down page 212 [3]
The fish was seen in solitude. It was described by Beebe as resembling a surgeon or butterflyfish. It was disc-like in appearance, with a 12 cm high and 15 cm across. Its fins were continuous and vertical; its eyes large. Bebe was intrigued by this fish's striking bioluminescence, which he described in the book Half Mile Down: "along the sides of the body were five unbelievably beautiful lines of light ... each line was composed of a series of large, pale yellow lights, and every one of these was surrounded by a semicircle of very small, but intensely purple photophores." [3]
Explicitly impressed with its luminescence, Beebe assigned the fish a taxonomic name, Bathysidus pentagrammus. When translated, it roughly means "five-lined star of the depths". He then states that "in his memory it will live throughout his life as one of the loveliest things he has ever seen."
Of the five new fish described by Beebe during the Bathysphere dives, none of them were confirmed to exist. His colleague Otis Barton, who descended with him in the submersible, attested he had also seen them. [4]
Ichthyologist Carl Hubbs has proposed that the creature encountered by Beebe was not a fish at all, but rather a ctenophore, or "comb jelly". [5] He proposed that the distortion caused by the small viewing window could have caused the comb jelly to appear narrower and cause its distinctive luminous lines to have been intensified.
CharlesWilliam Beebe was an American naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist, entomologist, explorer, and author. He is remembered for the numerous expeditions he conducted for the New York Zoological Society, his deep dives in the Bathysphere, and his prolific scientific writing for academic and popular audiences.
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The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a global 501(c)(3) non-governmental organization headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, that states its mission as saving "wildlife and wild places across the globe". Founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society (NYZS), the global conservation organization is, as of April 2, 2024, led by Interim President and CEO Robb Menzi. WCS manages four New York City wildlife parks in addition to the Bronx Zoo: the Central Park Zoo, New York Aquarium, Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo. Together these parks receive 4 million visitors per year. All of the New York City facilities are accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). WCS has a global program doing conservation work on the ground in more than 50 countries.
Pupfish are a group of small killifish belonging to ten genera of the family Cyprinodontidae of ray-finned fish. Pupfish are especially noted for being found in extreme and isolated situations. They are primarily found in North America, South America, and the Caribbean region. As of August 2006, 120 nominal species and 9 subspecies were known. Several pupfish species are extinct and most extant species are listed. In the U.S., the most well-known pupfish species may be the Devils Hole pupfish, native to Devils Hole on the Nevada side of Death Valley National Park. Since 1995 the Devils Hole pupfish has been in a nearly steady decline, where it was close to extinction at 35–68 fish in 2013.
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Gambusia hurtadoi, also known as crescent gambusia, is a species of fish in the family Poeciliidae. It is endemic to Chihuahua in Mexico, where it is known as guayacon de Hacienda Dolores. It grows to 3.5 cm (1.4 in) total length. The species was described in 1957 by Carl Leavitt Hubbs and Victor G. Springer with the type locality given as El Ojo de la Hacienda Dolores, 7 miles south of Jiminez, Chihuahua, the spring to which this species is endemic. Hubbs and Springer honoured the Mexican Leopoldo Hurtado Olin of the Departamento de Economía in Chihuahua for his assistance during their collecting expedition to Chihuahua in June 1951. Hurtado Olin also informed Hubbs and Springer of the location of El Ojo de la Hacienda Dolores.
The blind swamp eel is a species of fish in the family Synbranchidae. It is endemic to Mexico where it lives in cave systems and is known in Spanish as the anguila ciega. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated this cavefish as "endangered".
Carl Leavitt Hubbs was an American ichthyologist.
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John Tee-Van was an American ichthyologist and zoologist. He began his career as an apprentice zookeeper at the New York Zoological Park and ended it as its General Director.
"In the Abyss" is a short story by English writer H. G. Wells, first published in 1896 in Pearson's Magazine. It was included in The Plattner Story and Others, a collection of short stories by Wells first published in 1897. The story describes a journey to the ocean bed in a specially-designed metal sphere; the explorer within discovers a civilization of human-like creatures.
Gloria Hollister Anable was an American explorer, scientist, and conservationist. She served as research associate in the Department of Tropical Research of the New York Zoological Society, specializing in fish osteology, and she made record-setting dives in a submersible called the Bathysphere off the coast of Bermuda in the 1930s. During the 1950s, she helped to found the committee that preserved that Mianus River Gorge, which subsequently became the Nature Conservancy's first land project.
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