stupid question?
- Thread starter mushishi
- Start date
I don't think so...
bichir seems to involve all th poly's... EXCEPT the ropefish
you see ropefish described as a poly, but not a bichir
close, but not quite teh same IMO. at least not on this forum
bichir seems to involve all th poly's... EXCEPT the ropefish
you see ropefish described as a poly, but not a bichir
close, but not quite teh same IMO. at least not on this forum
dbcb314;2134671; said:
bichir no longer describes all Polypteridae. Modern terms include endli, del, ornate, etc. The evolution of the terminology may be due to differentiation between small growing and large growing species and/or top-jaw and bottom-jaw species. And, I've never heard of ropefish being referred to as 'poly'. The only different term I've heard is reedfish which is an accepted common name. Their scientific name is Erpetoichthys calabaricus which doesn't contain any variation of 'poly'.
1. 'bichir' is the common name for all species of Polypterus. But as Phil (oddball) said, some species has their own common name as well, such as ornate for ornatipinnis (which would be a standard common name), or 'del' for delhezi (which would be modern term that are popular on internet, same thing with 'endli' for P. endlicheri endlicheri).
2. 'Polypterus' is the proper scientific genus for the group.
3. ropefish/reedfish are usually not referred to as 'bichir' or 'polypterus', but it is in the same family as Polypterus, so the family Polypteridae or 'Polypterids' would include all species of Polypterus and ropefish.
4. As Phil mentioned, 'bichir' is also used as a scientific term. It is a species name with two recognized subspecies: Polypterus bichir bichir and Polypterus bichir lapradei. But when people say 'bichir', they're almost always using meaning #1, i.e. they are using it as a common name for all species of Polypterus.
2. 'Polypterus' is the proper scientific genus for the group.
3. ropefish/reedfish are usually not referred to as 'bichir' or 'polypterus', but it is in the same family as Polypterus, so the family Polypteridae or 'Polypterids' would include all species of Polypterus and ropefish.
4. As Phil mentioned, 'bichir' is also used as a scientific term. It is a species name with two recognized subspecies: Polypterus bichir bichir and Polypterus bichir lapradei. But when people say 'bichir', they're almost always using meaning #1, i.e. they are using it as a common name for all species of Polypterus.