Brisbane Scientist Discovers New Species Of Fish; 'A Most Exciting Discovery'

Brisbane Scientist Discovers New Species Of Fish; 'A Most Exciting Discovery'

Source: Underwatertimes

4/29/2009

Brisbane Scientist Discovers New Species Of Fish; 'A Most Exciting Discovery'

A University of Queensland researcher has returned from where no person has been before – deep in the western Pacific.

PhD student Adrian Flynn, from UQ's School of Biomedical Sciences, was part of an international team investigating never-before explored areas of the deep Pacific Ocean and he may have discovered a new species of fish in the process.

“We are in the process of confirming if a spookfish we collected on this trip is in fact a species new to science, which would be a most exciting discovery,” Mr Flynn said.

“Spookfishes are beautiful deep-sea fishes characterised by the presence of ‘tubular' eyes that see through its transparent head.”

Aboard the research vessel the Seward Johnson, Mr Flynn went fishing in depths up to 1500m and made some fascinating findings, including a live specimen of the pint-sized but fierce-looking anglerfish, a barrel-eye fish, with its tubular upward-looking eye, several species of dragonfishes and loosejaws.

Mr Flynn is using the data collected on this voyage as part of his study of mesopelagic fishes, which inhabit ocean depths between 100 and 1000m.