National Science Foundation -funded scientists has identified at least 11 species of fish suspected to have land-walking abilities. The findings are based on CT scans and a new evolutionary map of the hillstream loach family, which includes the only living fish species caught in the act of walking: a rare, blind cavefish known as Cryptotora thamicola , or the cave angel fish. Pinpointing which species of hillstream loaches have walking capabilities can help scientists piece together how the first land-walking vertebrates might have come to be.
In the study , published in the Journal of Morphology , researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History , the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Louisiana State University and Maejo University in Thailand analyzed the bone structure of nearly 30 hillstream loach species, describing for the first time three categories of pelvic shapes.
Based on the shape of the bone that connects some loaches' spines to their pelvic fins, the team found that 10 other species of loach shared the cave angel fish's unusually hefty pelvic girdle. The species spotted strolling about the Great Barrier Reef was Rhinopias agriloba , a fish usually only found in the waters around Hawaii. Sure enough, R. Elsewhere in the ocean, four new species of walking shark have been described in the waters off northern Australia and New Guinea.
The adaptation helps these top predators track down prey using their unusual fins to move along the surface of reefs during low tide. The four new arrivals to ocean science join five other species that are all found in the coastal waters around northern Australia and New Guinea.
Benhalassa, a French cook who dives in his free time, suspected it was a type of stingfish, which are among the most venomous fish on Earth.
It was "bizarre and pretty I thought that this could please the Internet. Scientists contacted for this story agree that the odd creature is likely a member of the genus Minous , more commonly known as stingfish. See more pictures of strange-looking sea creatures. But experts are less sure about its species, in part because it's so difficult to tell the difference between closely related fish species without holding a specimen in your hands.
Instead, he guesses the fish is a painted stinger, M. This is what Motomura believes. In fact, it may be one of the new species that he and a student, Yukino Ando, are working to describe. This is probably because stingfish spend most of the day embedded in mud and are thus rarely seen by divers. Most specimens get hauled out of the deep by fishermen looking for shrimp. However, elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Motomura says, stingfish are thrown back into the ocean because they are believed to be devils.
As for the amateur diver, Benhalassa, he plans to keep diving. Follow Jason Bittel on Twitter and Facebook. All rights reserved. A fish appeared to be walking across the seafloor on a pair of legs.
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