Name of animal-plant: Cunner
Species name: Tautogolabrus adspersus
The bergall, also known as the cunner, conner or chogset, Tautogolabrus adspersus, is a species of wrasse native to the western Atlantic, where it is found from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Newfoundland to the Chesapeake Bay. They inhabit inshore waters living near the sea floor at depths from 10 to 128 m (33 to 420 ft), preferring areas with beds of seaweed, shipwrecks, or wharf pilings. They spend the winter months in a state of torpor underneath rocks. They can also be found in the aquarium trade.
Often, bergall is mixed in with blackfish (tautog), living on or near the same structures.
Much of the food eaten by those bergall living among blackfish are the leftovers from the blackfishes prey.[citation needed] They can be distinguished from the tautog by their pointed snouts. Bergall are generally smaller, so are usually thrown back by anglers who think they caught a “short” tautog. In past years, they have been important commercial fish, but now are considered pests. They can be confused with black sea bass and other grouper, as well as tautog, for their ability to change color.
Animal type: FISH
A fish is any member of a group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic craniate animals that lack limbs with digits. They form a sister group to the tunicates, together forming the olfactores. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups. Tetrapods emerged within lobe-finned fishes, so cladistically they are fish as well. However, traditionally fish are rendered paraphyletic by excluding the tetrapods (i.e., the amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals which all descended from within the same ancestry). Because in this manner the term “fish” is defined negatively as a paraphyletic group, it is not considered a formal taxonomic grouping in systematic biology. The traditional term pisces (also ichthyes) is considered a typological, but not a phylogenetic classification.
Subcategory: m_benthic
Fact:
All animals and plants are given a species name based on a technical term in biological taxnomy. The species name consists of two words and is based on Latin.
The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs and the second part identifies the species within the genus. In this animals case it is: Tautogolabrus adspersus
Photos by monkeysteel7, petersjesse51, Neil DeMaster, Discover Marine Science, eclectic echoes,
