New family of prehistoric fishes discovered in Kerala
A team of researchers has discovered a new deep sea fish species in Kerala waters. Glossanodon macrocephalus (common name Kerala argentine) with whitish and Silvery body
In the new family of bony freshwater fish from paddy fields of Kerala. It is believed that this fish has lineage going back to Gondwanaland and has survived even after the parting away of the Asian and African continents began some 125 million years ago.
Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER), Pune, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), Nirmalagiri College in Kerala, Natural History Museums in London and Berne, along with Senckenberg Natural History Collections, Germany, were part of the discovery of the fish family named Aenigmachannidae.
As the researchers suspected, the fish was new to science. They named it the ‘Gollum snakehead’ as it is a subterranean creature, spending most of its life underground .
But the discovery had bigger implications than simply being a new species. Another snakehead species – the Mahabali snakehead – had also been collected in Kerala a few months before and was published as a new species after the Gollum snakehead had been described. Rajeev, Ralf and an international team of ichthyologists recognised many clear similarities between the Gollum and the Mahabali, and proved that not only were the two species new to science, they were actually members of a whole new family of fish.
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