While sorting through and identifying the fish species that I collected for my master's thesis project, I came across a species that was unknown to me. This tiny brown fish was nothing spectacular, save for the unicorn-like appendage between its eyes. I instantly fell in love with this oddball, as it was nothing like I'd even seen before. After exhausting all attempts at trying to identify it using guides and dichotomous keys, I reached out to several colleagues who were familiar with Red Sea fishes. We quickly came to the conclusion that it was indeed a new species of goby, possibly even a new genus. Having only collected two individuals during my fieldwork, I quickly set out to attempt to capture more. As any small fish enthusiast knows, collecting these tiny, cryptic fishes is most akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. I went back to the same reef where I had collected the previous two specimens, and went to work. I knew that the previous fish were collected near the substrate in a rubble environment, so that is where I focused my search. It takes a careful eye to find cryptic species underwater, as they are easily overlooked and will often hide in minuscule holes and cracks. After about a half hour of searching and not finding much, I came across a soccer ball-sized rock at the bottom of the reef. I could see small fish darting around the rock, and then disappearing into pencil-sized holes. I swam closer to the rock, my face inches from it, and was surprised to see tiny faces peering back at mine. I was thrilled to have found so many individuals, so I quickly collected what I could, then headed back to the boat. After returning from my collecting trip, I sent off several specimens to expert taxonomists for the painstaking identification work. After examining both morphological and molecular data, we concluded that the fish belonged to a new genus as well as a new species. We christened it Cerogobius petrophilus, meaning rock-loving horned goby, in honor of the fish's preferred habitat and horn-like appendage. FIGURE 3. Cerogobius petrophilus sp. nov. A: paratype, SMF 35963, female, 14.81 + 2.97 mm, freshly collected specimen, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. Holotype, SMF 35961, female, 16.32 + 3.54 mm, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, B: freshly collected specimen; C: preserved specimen. Photos by E.M. Troyer (A & B), M. Kovačić (C). I love doing biodiversity research, because there is so much on this planet that we have not discovered yet. Taxonomy can be viewed as the foundation of biology, because it becomes nearly impossible to do research on an organism, when you don't know what it is. Furthermore, in the recent wake of global climate change, collecting and cataloging the diversity of life is becoming increasingly important as many species face the threat of extinction. To read more about this study, check out the recent publication in Zootaxa: Kovačić M, Bogorodsky SV, Troyer EM, Tornabene L (2019) Cerogobius petrophilus (Perciformes: Gobiidae), a new gobiid genus and species from the Red Sea. Zootaxa 4565(2): 171-189
2 Comments
Aba
7/22/2019 10:49:59 am
Very Kool discovery. I love that photo you were able to capture of the goby staring back at you. Keep it up!
Reply
Emily Troyer
7/22/2019 02:11:42 pm
Thanks!!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThis blog will be where I will talk about my research experience and where it has taken me over the years. Archives
July 2019
Categories |