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New species: funky frogfish
Source: Agencies |
February 27, 2009, Friday
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Print Edition
A FUNKY psychedelic fish that bounces on the ocean floor like a rubber ball has been classified as a new species, a scientific journal reported.
The frogfish was discovered by scuba diving instructors a year ago in shallow waters off Ambon island in eastern Indonesia.
They contacted Ted Pietsch, lead author of a paper published in this month's edition of Copeia, the journal of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, who submitted DNA work identifying it as a new species.
Like other frogfish, the "psychedelica" has fins on both sides of its body that have evolved to be leg-like. But it has several behavioral traits not seen before, Pietsch wrote.
Each time the fish strike the seabed, for instance, they push off with their fins and expel water from tiny gill openings to jet themselves forward. That, and an off-centered tail, causes them to bounce around in a bizarre, chaotic manner, the journal said.
The frogfish was discovered by scuba diving instructors a year ago in shallow waters off Ambon island in eastern Indonesia.
They contacted Ted Pietsch, lead author of a paper published in this month's edition of Copeia, the journal of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, who submitted DNA work identifying it as a new species.
Like other frogfish, the "psychedelica" has fins on both sides of its body that have evolved to be leg-like. But it has several behavioral traits not seen before, Pietsch wrote.
Each time the fish strike the seabed, for instance, they push off with their fins and expel water from tiny gill openings to jet themselves forward. That, and an off-centered tail, causes them to bounce around in a bizarre, chaotic manner, the journal said.
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