Smooth handfish

The smooth handfish (Sympterichthys unipennis) is an extinct species of handfish in the genus Sympterichthys. It was endemic to waters off the coast of Tasmania, mainly the D’Entrecasteaux Channel. It was declared extinct by the IUCN Red List in May 2018 and once again in March 2020, marking the first entirely marine fish classified as such.

Smooth handfish
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Lophiiformes
Family: Brachionichthyidae
Genus: Sympterichthys
Species:
S. unipennis
Binomial name
Sympterichthys unipennis
(Cuvier, 1817)

In the past, it was likely reasonably common, as it was one of the first fish described on François Péron's 1802 survey of Australia and an individual was caught with a simple dipnet; this is the only known specimen of the species. When and how the species went extinct is relatively unclear, but it likely had to do with the intensive scallop and oyster fishery that went on in the area between the 19th and mid-20th centuries, which dredged every part of the channel, which destroyed critical habitat that the benthic handfish required.[1][2][3]

References
  1. International), Graham Edgar (Conservation; Last (CSIRO), Peter; Tasmania), Rick Stuart-Smith (University of (2018-05-01). "IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Sympterichthys unipennis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  2. "Farewell smooth handfish: What can we learn from the world's first marine fish extinction?". phys.org. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  3. "Sympterichthys unipennis summary page". FishBase. Retrieved 2020-07-11.


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