Description
The body and head of the Cornish jack are elongated; the head is nearly twice as long as high, smooth and depressed in front. The snout is rounded and almost as wide as the head. The mouth is terminal, with the upper jaw slightly longer than the lower, both bearing a single row of small, pointed teeth. The eyes are very small and placed in the front third of the head. The gill openings are small and inclined at an angle. The dorsal and anal fins are set well back on the body; the caudal fin is relatively small and forked with rounded lobes. There are 21–30 fin rays in the dorsal and 38–51 rays in the anal fin. The anal fin of the male differs from that of the female in having longer rays and a pronounced concavity in the anterior half.
The scales are small, numbering 85–100 in the lateral line. The coloration is gray above, lighter silvery white below, often with a bronze or yellow sheen. The juveniles are darker in color, being grayish blue or brown. The meristic characteristics of the body (such as the number of scales, fin rays, and vertebrae) vary by geographic location. The largest members of the family Mormyridae, Cornish jacks attain a maximum known length of 1.5 m and a weight of 15 kg.
Read more about this topic: Cornish Jack
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“It is possible—indeed possible even according to the old conception of logic—to give in advance a description of all ‘true’ logical propositions. Hence there can never be surprises in logic.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“The Sage of Toronto ... spent several decades marveling at the numerous freedoms created by a “global village” instantly and effortlessly accessible to all. Villages, unlike towns, have always been ruled by conformism, isolation, petty surveillance, boredom and repetitive malicious gossip about the same families. Which is a precise enough description of the global spectacle’s present vulgarity.”
—Guy Debord (b. 1931)
“The great object in life is Sensation—to feel that we exist, even though in pain; it is this “craving void” which drives us to gaming, to battle, to travel, to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principal attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)