Chordata · chordates
Surf scoter
Melanitta perspicillata
Anatidae · ducks, geese & swansIUCN: Least Concern
A black sea duck with a clownish orange, white, and black bill.
Fun factBig flocks winter along the Northeast coast, diving for mussels in the surf.
- Waters
- Northeast US, Northwest Atlantic, North Pacific, Eastern Pacific
- Depth zone
- Coastal shallows & estuaries
- Diet
- Mussels & clams
- Size
- About 50 cm
Classification
Chordata › Reptilia › Anseriformes › Anatidae
- Kingdom Animalia animals
- Many-celled organisms that eat other living things for energy (heterotrophs)
- Cells have no cell walls
- Most can move at some stage of life
- Clade Bilateria bilateral animals
- Body has a left and right side that mirror each other (bilateral symmetry)
- Head end with concentrated nerves; three tissue layers
- Includes about 99% of all living animal species
- Clade Deuterostomia deuterostomes
- In the embryo, the first opening becomes the anus and the mouth forms second
- Includes echinoderms and chordates
- Phylum Chordata chordates
- At some stage of life: a stiffening rod along the back (notochord)
- A hollow nerve cord along the back (dorsal)
- Slits in the throat (pharyngeal slits) and a tail past the anus
- Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
- A skull (cranium) protecting a brain
- Backbone or similar support around the nerve cord
- Includes fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals
- Infraphylum Gnathostomata jawed vertebrates
- Jawed vertebrates: jaws formed from gill arches
- Paired fins or limbs
- Includes all fishes except hagfish and lampreys, plus all tetrapods
- Superclass Osteichthyes bony vertebrates
- Bony vertebrates: skeleton made largely of bone
- Most have a lung or swim bladder
- Includes ray-finned and lobe-finned fishes and all tetrapods
- Clade Sarcopterygii lobe-finned vertebrates
- Lobe-finned: fleshy fins with bones like those of limbs
- Includes coelacanths, lungfishes, and all tetrapods
- Clade Tetrapoda four-limbed vertebrates
- Four limbs with fingers and toes (or descended from animals that had them)
- Breathe air with lungs
- Class Reptilia reptiles (birds included)
- Scaly skin made of keratin
- Lay shelled eggs on land or carry eggs inside the body (amniotic egg)
- In modern classification this group includes birds
- Clade Archosauria crocodilians & birds
- Includes crocodilians, birds, and extinct dinosaurs and pterosaurs
- Birds and crocodilians share a four-chambered heart and a muscular gizzard
- Class Aves birds
- Birds: feathers
- Toothless beak
- Lay hard-shelled eggs; warm-blooded
- Order Anseriformes waterfowl
- Waterfowl: webbed feet and a flat bill with comb-like edges (lamellae)
- Family Anatidae ducks, geese & swans
- Ducks, geese, and swans
- Sea ducks dive for mussels and crabs
- Genus Melanitta
- Species in the same genus are very close relatives and often look alike.
- Species Melanitta perspicillata Surf scoter
Closest relatives in the guide
- Common eider Somateria mollissima same family
- Long-tailed duck Clangula hyemalis same family
- African penguin Spheniscus demersus same class
- Arctic tern Sterna paradisaea same class
- Atlantic puffin Fratercula arctica same class
- Banded sea krait Laticauda colubrina same class
- Brown pelican Pelecanus occidentalis same class
- Common loon Gavia immer same class