Fish > Ipnopidae & Deep-sea Tripod Fishes
Murray’s Abyssal Spiderfish (Ipnops murrayi), discovered during the historic HMS Challenger expedition and named in honor of pioneering oceanographer Sir John Murray, is one of the most anatomically extraordinary fishes in the global ocean abyss. Inhabiting...
Fish > Grammicolepididae & Tinselfishes
The Thorny Tinselfish (Grammicolepis brachiusculus) is a bizarre, deeply compressed marine fish roaming the twilight bathyal realms of the world’s oceans. Named for its shimmering, mirror-like silvery sheen and the thorny spines lining its median fins, this...
Amphibians > Hynobiidae & Asian Salamanders
The Japanese Clawed Salamander (Onychodactylus japonicus), known in Japan as the Hakone Sanshouo, is an evolutionary marvel endemic to the clear mountain streams of Honshu and Shikoku. Unlike the vast majority of terrestrial vertebrates, this salamander lacks lungs...
Birds > Ptilonorhynchidae & Bowerbirds
The Golden Bowerbird (Prionodura newtoniana) is an extraordinary avian architect restricted exclusively to the misty mountain peaks of Queensland’s Wet Tropics in northeastern Australia. While it is the smallest of all nineteen bowerbird species in body size,...
Invertebrates > Saturniidae & Giant Silkmoths
The Spanish Moon Moth (Graellsia isabellae), also admired as the Isabela Silkmoth, is universally celebrated as Europe’s most magnificent and enchanting lepidopteran. Endemic to the high pine-forested slopes of the Iberian Peninsula and the French Alps, this...
