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Elephant Fish | Daily Animal Facts

Animal profile

Elephant Fish

Callorhinchus milii

ChondrichthyesContinental shelf to about 200 metres, entering shallow estuaries and bays to spawnLeast Concern

Field profile

The elephant fish is a chimaera with a soft, hoe-shaped proboscis on its snout, silvery flanks and a venomous dorsal spine. It moves into shallow bays in spring to lay large horny egg capsules on soft bottoms.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2024-06-18

Elephant Fish

The elephant fish has the slowest-evolving vertebrate genome

Sequenced in 2014 as the first cartilaginous fish genome, it changes more slowly than any other vertebrate genome examined. It also turned out to be missing the gene family that other vertebrates use to build bone.

Read with evidence →