The pink iguana, named after its salmon-colored skin, lives only on the Wolf volcano on the island of Isabela.
Gabriele Gentile, of Rome's University Tor Vergata, and
colleagues are the first team to research and document the iguana,
which will receive a formal scientific name in an upcoming paper.
"What's surprising is that a new species of megafauna, like a
large lizard, may still be [found] in a well-studied archipelago,"
Gentile told National Geographic News.
The discovery ends an "evolutionary silence" of about nine million years, Gentile said.
That's because researchers didn't know what had happened between 10.5 million years ago, when land and marine iguanas split off, and a million years ago, when land iguanas apparently diverged into several species.
The pink iguana's future, however, isn't so rosy: Gentile and colleagues say the animal's population is "alarmingly small."
Feral cats introduced to the island may be eating the young reptiles, and goats may be competitors for food, Gentile said.
"We desperately need more funds to keep on doing our best to
investigate and protect this newly recognized species," Gentile added,
"before it becomes extinct."
Photograph by Gabriele Gentile
Feb. 24, 2009 |
Science DNA evidence is in, newly discovered species of fish dubbed H. psychedelica
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| | ©David Hall/seaphotos.com |
With its flattened face, the fish's eyes appear to be directed forward
and may provide it with binocular vision, a special attribute well
developed in humans that provides the ability to accurately judge
distance. Only very few fishes have eyes whose radius of vision
overlaps in front, providing such vision. (Use of image restricted, see
end of release.)
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| | ©David Hall/seaphotos.com |
A H. psychedelica jet-propels itself through the water. More than a
dozen individuals have been seen in Ambon Harbor, Indonesia, since
divers with Maluku Divers first spotted one of the fish in January
2008. The fish have been found in 15 to 25 feet of water near a
commercial jetty in the busy harbor. (Use of image restricted, see end
of release.)
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|
| | ©David Hall/seaphotos.com |
A H. psychedelica sits on its leg-like pectoral fins, with its tail
curled about to one side. It prefers to inhabit crevices and holes in
the reef, sometimes vigorously twisting and turning its body to enter
such spaces. The skin of the body is thick, loose and spongy. Perhaps
that's the reason the fish moves among sharp edged corals without being
scraped and scarred. (Use of image restricted, see end of release.)
| |
"Psychedelica" seems the perfect name for
a species of fish that is a wild swirl of tan and peach zebra stripes
and behaves in ways contrary to its brethren. So says University of
Washington's Ted Pietsch, who is the first to describe the new species
in the scientific literature and thus the one to select the name.
Psychedelica is perhaps even more apt given the cockamamie way the
fish swim, some with so little control they look intoxicated and should
be cited for DUI.
Members of Histiophryne psychedelica, or H. psychedelica, don't so
much swim as hop. Each time they strike the seafloor they use their
fins to push off and they expel water from tiny gill openings on their
sides to jet themselves forward. With tails curled tightly to one side
--which surely limits their ability to steer -- they look like inflated
rubber balls bouncing hither and thither.
While other frogfish and similar species are known to jet themselves
up off the bottom before they begin swimming, none have been observed
hopping. It's just one of the behaviors of H. psychedelica never
observed in any other fish, says Pietsch, UW professor of aquatic and
fishery sciences and curator of fishes at the UW Burke Museum of
Natural History and Culture. He's the lead author of a paper about the
new species that's now online at Copeia, the journal of the American
Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. His work is funded by the
National Science Foundation.
It was little more than a year ago that the fish with rare,
forward-facing eyes like humans and a secretive nature was the subject
of worldwide news coverage after having been observed in the busy
harbor of Ambon Island, Indonesia. An adult fish was observed in
January 2008 by Toby Fadirsyair, a guide, and Buck and Fitrie Randolph,
two of the co-owners of Maluku Divers, which is based in Ambon. They
and co-owners Andy and Kerry Shorten eventually found Pietsch to help
them identify the fish. Since the first sighting divers have observed a
number of adults and juveniles, now that they know what to look for.
Adults of H. psychedelica are fist-sized with gelatinous bodies
covered with thick folds of skin that protect them from sharp-edged
corals as they haunt tiny nooks and crannies of the harbor reef. Fins
on either side of their bodies have, as with other frogfish, evolved to
be leg-like, and members of H. psychedelica actually prefer crawling to
swimming.
The species has a flattened face with eyes directed forward. It's
something Pietsch, with 40 years of experience studying and classifying
fishes, has never seen before in frogfish. It causes him to speculate
that the species may have binocular vision, that is, vision that
overlaps in front, like it does in humans. Most fish, with eyes on
either side of their head, don't have vision that overlaps; instead
they see different things with each eye.
DNA work revealed that H. psychedelica joins two other species in
the genus Histiophryne, though the other two are very drably colored in
comparison. The genus is but one of about a dozen in the family
Antennariidae, known as frogfish in most places in the world. The
frogfish are, in turn, part of the larger order of Lophiiformes, or
anglerfish. Pietsch is the world's foremost anglerfish authority and,
when sent a photo last year of the newfound fish, he said he'd stake
his reputation that it was an anglerfish.
He was right. But what an unusual member it turned out to be.
Compared to other anglerfish, members of H. psychedelica have no
lures. Most anglerfish have lures growing out of their foreheads. The
other anglerfish sit right out in the open on the seafloor or coral
reefs, often adapting their coloring so their bodies are camouflaged,
but the lures are meant to be noticed so the fish wave, wiggle and
sometimes blink the lures on and off in order to attract pray, Pietsch
says.
Instead of all that showiness, members of H. psychedelica are shy
and secretive, probably one of the reasons they weren't previously
spotted. When a member of H. psychedelica is uncovered by divers it
usually seeks a new place to hide within 10 or 15 minutes.
And while other anglerfish change their coloring depending on the
environment, the new species appears to maintain its wild striping no
matter the surroundings.
The coloring led co-author David Hall, a wildlife photographer and
owner of seaphotos.com, to speculate that the fish is mimicking corals.
Indeed, Hall produced photos for the new scientific paper showing
corals the animals may be mimicking.
The other co-author, Rachel Arnold, who is a UW master's student in
aquatic and fishery sciences, did the DNA work on the new species.
Arnold, who dove in Ambon Harbor last year, said the striping of each
fish is distinctive, "like a fingerprint of patterning on their body so
from whatever angle you look, you can tell individuals apart."
The scientists found, however, that the vivid colors faded in a
matter of days once a specimen was preserved in ethanol. The flesh of
the preserved specimen looks white, but with a microscope one can still
see the striping, Pietsch discovered.
This got him thinking about two specimens sent to him in 1992 that
he'd kept as part of the UW's fish collection. The Dallas Aquarium had
sent him two frogfish, found in a shipment of live fishes from Bali
that they said had unusual pigment patterns. The staff had nicknamed
them "paisley frogfish." But the photograph Pietsch was sent was of
poor quality and the preserved specimens Pietsch received were white,
so he didn't give them much thought.
Pietsch retrieved the old specimens from the collection, put them
under a microscope and found the striping distinctive to H.
psychedelica. He'd had two specimen of a new species of fish for 17
years, but didn't know it.
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For more information:
Pietsch, 206 543-8923, 206 543-3816, twp@u.washington.edu
