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Bill USA

(6,436 posts)
Wed Apr 17, 2013, 06:33 PM Apr 2013

Scientists describe new species of see-through fish from the Amazon

http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0402-new-fish-cyanogaster-noctivaga.html

Scientists have documented an entirely new genus of fish from a river in the Amazon rainforest.

The fish, dubbed Cyanogaster noctivaga or the blue-bellied night wanderer, is described in the journal Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters. The species may have gone undiscovered in one of the Amazon's most studied tributaries — the Rio Negro — because it is nocturnal, tiny and transparent. With a maximum length of 17 mm, it is one of the smallest known vertebrates, measuring only 7 mm more than the world's tiniest fish.

"It is a strange little animal, completely transparent with an otherwise unique color pattern," said study co-author Ralf Britz, an ichthyologist at London's Natural History Museum.

Another reason the night-active Cyanogaster noctivaga may have been undetected is its habitat: the highly acidic blackwater of the Rio Negro. The river is so dark due to dissolved tannins that it is often likened to a cup of well-brewed black tea.




Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0402-new-fish-cyanogaster-noctivaga.html#sK9GUWvTR5Kev65q.99
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