Smithsonian scientists have managed to match fish larva collected in the Florida Straits and adults of a new species of sea bass discovered off the coast of Curacao.
These researchers, who had their study results published in the journal PLOS ONE, found this larva in a photograph without identification in another research paper and recognized it as a member of the sea bass family Serranidae. However, they were intrigued by its seven very elongate dorsal-fin spines.
"This feature isn't known in any Atlantic sea bass larvae, but it is similar to one species of Indo-Pacific sea bass," said David Johnson, a zoologist at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
Nevertheless, the team detected the DNA sequence did not match any known fish species and, this fact along with its unique morphological features, led the scientists to begin describing the larva as a new species despite the absence of adults.
Combining this new genetic information with available DNA barcoding data for all western Atlantic sea bass specimens yielded an unexpected discovery: The larva from the Florida Straits is the pelagic stage of a cryptic new species of Liopropomafrom southern Caribbean deep reefs.
It was concluded that a new species of sea bass—now known as Liopropoma olneyi—was discovered and the team named the new species in honour of a deceased colleague, John E. Olney, who studied and taught courses about marine fish larvae.
"Science has largely missed the deep-reef zone, and it appears to be home to a lot of life that we didn't know about," stressed Carole Baldwin, a zoologist at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
Researchers are now able to study deep reefs in the southern Caribbean because of the availability of the Curasub submersible, a privately owned, manned submersible capable of descending to 1,000 feet.
The work off Curacao resulting in the discovery of L. olneyi is part of the Smithsonian's Deep Reef Observation Project.
No comments:
Post a Comment