Neatypus obliquus
Encyclopedia
Neatypus obliquus, the sole species in genus Neatypus, is a marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 fish that is endemic to southern reefs of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is placed in the Kyphosidae family and informally known as the Western Footballer.

The compressed body is silvery-blue, with orange to yellow diagonal striping that is bordered by a brownish black; fins match the shade of yellowy-orange. They reach a maximum length of 0.24 meters.

It occurs near inshore and offshore reefs of the southern Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 coast in active and large schools. The range is from Shark Bay, Western Australia
Shark Bay, Western Australia
Shark Bay is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. It is an area centred approximately on , 800 kilometres north of Perth, on the westernmost point of Australia. An expedition led by Dirk Hartog happened upon the area in 1616, becoming the second group of Europeans...

 to Flinders Island, South Australia
Flinders Island, South Australia
Flinders Island is an island in the Investigator Group off the coast of South Australia. It was named by Matthew Flinders after his younger brother Samuel Flinders, a midshipman on HMS Investigator in 1801...

. They feed on unspecified benthic invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...

s and zooplankton
Zooplankton
Zooplankton are heterotrophic plankton. Plankton are organisms drifting in oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water. The word "zooplankton" is derived from the Greek zoon , meaning "animal", and , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter"...

.

Other species of its family are known as 'footballers', for the similarity to footballer's
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

 striped jumpers, and this species is also known as the Footballer sweep. Neatypus obliquus was first described by Edgar Ravenswood Waite
Edgar Ravenswood Waite
Edgar Ravenswood Waite was a British/Australian ichthyologist, ornithologist and zoologist.Waite was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, the second son of John Waite, a bank clerk,...

in 1905.
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