Amazon "mystery" fish is a new species, say scientists

[dusty64]

By Reuters



SAO PAULO, Brazil — Scientists in Brazil's Amazon say they have discovered a new fish, something that has not happened for more than a century. They hope to categorize the small eel-like creature by the end of the year.
"It's a new species, which will require us to create a new genus and a whole new family to accommodate it," said Jansen Zuanon, head aquatic biology researcher at Brazil's National Amazon Research Institute (Inpa).

Swiss Inpa researcher Ilse Walker came across the fish in 1999 while carrying out research on shrimp in flood plains near Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state. Since then a team of four researchers have studied several specimens.

"It still doesn't have a name," Zuanon said. "We have been calling it the mystery fish because it didn't fit into any group.... It's long-bodied with a mixture of characteristics which are quite different from any other Amazon fish group. A new family of fish hasn't been categorized in probably the last 150 years," the biologist said, adding that the discovery of new species was quite common.

The finding is the latest example of the diversity of the Amazon, an area of tropical forest larger than Western Europe that is home to up to 30 percent of the planet's animal and plant species.

http://www.enn.com/news/2003-07-04/s_6202.asp

[SoCalDem]

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