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Local scientist finds new fish species that faces perilous future
2010/07/30 19:43:13 |
Taipei, July 30 (CNA) A Taiwanese scholar and two researchers at American universities have discovered two new batfish species that live at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, but their existence is endangered because their habitats have been affected by the BP oil spill.
"This is the first time that we have just found a new species at the same time as they are at risk of extinction, " said Dr. Ho Hsuan-ching, a postdoctoral fellow of the Biodiversity Research Center at Academia Sinica and one of three researchers who made the discovery.
The genus Halieutichthys, commonly known as pancake batfish because of their rounded and small flat bodies, are bottom dwellers that move by "walking" with their stout, arm-like fins, according to scientists.
Ho and his colleagues examined 5,000 specimens from the western Atlantic Ocean, and discovered that the species known as Halieuticthys aculeatus, originally classified as a single species, was actually five different species.
Three of the five live in the Gulf of Mexico, including two new species H. intermedius and Halieutichthys bispinosus.
"All five species live in waters either partially or fully encompassed by the recent oil spill, with the H. Intermedius completely restricted to the oil spill area," Ho said.
He voiced concern that H. intermedius was at risk of extinction unless another habitat could be found because of the uncertainty of the impact of the oil spill on the pancake batfish's environment and food supply.
Even if some fish survived severe conditions such as food shortages, their offspring might have trouble subsisting, Ho worried.
According to Academia Sinica, co-author John Sparks from the American Museum of Natural History believes that discoveries such as this "underscore the potential loss of undocumented biodiversity that a disaster of this scale may portend."
The study, called "Review of the Halieutichthys aculeatus Species Complex (Lophiiformes: Ogcocephalidae), with Descriptions of Two New Species" was published in the Journal of Fish Biology on July 15. (By Sunnie Chen) enditem/ls
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