#filter feeder

Fields of Fish

Every night a great migration occurs, when counting total mass of animals involved it is the largest migration on the planet. This is the vertical migration of aquatic fauna from the depths to the surface waters. In large inland lakes this means that clouds of tiny crustaceans such as Daphnia are within arms reach every night for a creature capable of catching them. Pectenognathus pelecanus is a ctenochasmatid pterosaur that has capitalized on this available niche. They hunt by floating out upon the water and dipping their head below to sweep through dense patches of plankton. Their gular pouch is greatly expanded and highly elastic allowing them to gather a great deal of water before seiving. Their upper jaw is lined with thousands of thin, needle-like teeth that act as a filter, letting the water out and keeping the food in. Since their hunting is done at night their eyes have become very large and with a well developed nictitating membrane to help them see in dark waters. Peculiarly for a pterosaur, especially a long-bodied ctenochasmatid, P. pelecanus sleep perched within tree branches to avoid predators, a habit for which their webbed feet and claws are not well suited.

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Results from todays flocking paleostream

Magamouth sharks are a rare species of deep sea shark. They are filter feeders, using their large mouths to eat while swimming through the ocean.

According to the Florida Museum, between 1976 and 2022 there had been 273 confirmed sightings of these sharks internationally, the large majority happening as by-catch in Taiwan, but there has been likely more unreported sightings by fishers who released them back into the water due to their large size(approximately 5 meters, or 16 feet in length).

Because of the rare sightings of the magamouth shark, scientists do not know how big their population is, making the conservation status marked as "least concern."

Ate lunch, went shopping, got a new outfit, showed it to friends.

A gentle filter feeding horror

The first known filter feeder is a large shrimp-like creature called Tamisiocaris borealis.

The feather-like structures on its head were used to gather plankton from the sea.