Anglers snag large bottom-dweller with big eyes

Anglers snag large bottom-dweller with big eyes — and discover a new species

By Aspen Pflughoeft

Source: miamiherald

6/1/2024

Off the coast of South America, an angler dropped a weighted fishing lure into the water and waited. A “large” bottom-dwelling creature fell for the bait. It turned out to be a new species. Anglers caught 16 of these “large” bottom-dwelling fish off the coast of Peru and Ecuador between 1996 and 2022, according to a study published May 27 in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa. They hauled their catch to port where the scaly animals caught the attention of scientists.

Researchers suspected these bottom-dwellers were being misidentified, the study said. They took a closer look at the fish, analyzed the DNA and soon realized they were right. They’d discovered a new species: Aulopus chirichignoae, or the Pacific royal flagfin fish.