Latest news with #JörgFreyhof
Miami Herald
5 days ago
- Science
- Miami Herald
‘Thick'-lipped creature found in ‘swiftly flowing' river. It's a new species
In a clear river of Switzerland, a 'thick'-lipped creature swam through the 'swiftly flowing' waters and tucked itself under a stone on the riverbed. Suddenly something zapped it and caused it to float to the surface. Scientists scooped up their catch — and realized they'd discovered a new species. A team of scientists spent two years visiting rivers and lakes in Switzerland as part of an aquatic biodiversity project. They suspected some of the fish living in these waterways might be misidentified, according to a study published July 2 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Fish Biology. Researchers collected dozens of fish through electrofishing and searched archive collections for older specimens, the study said. Once they'd accumulated enough, the team analyzed the DNA of the fish and compared their appearances. A pattern eventually emerged: Some of the river-dwelling fish were subtly but consistently different from other known species, the study said. Researchers realized they'd discovered a new species: Barbatula fluvicola, or the North-Prealpine stone loach. North-Prealpine stone loaches are considered 'robust' and 'elongate,' reaching over 3.5 inches in length, the study said. They have 'deep' heads with 'small' nostrils and 'wide' mouths with 'thick' upper lips. Photos show the 'yellowish' coloring and 'dark-brown pattern' of the new species. Some fish had 'very densely mottled' heads, while others had 'almost plain brown' heads, researchers said. North-Prealpine stone loaches were found in 'small to medium size rivers' with 'clear' and 'swiftly flowing water,' the study said. The fish primarily eat insects and typically live 'at the bottom of rivers under stones and among pebbles' but were 'sometimes close to larger rocks when in more rapid deeper waters.' Researchers said they named the new species after the Latin word for 'inhabitant of rivers' because of its natural habitat. The North-Prealpine stone loach 'seems to be abundant' and has been found in several rivers of Switzerland and neighboring regions of Austria and Germany, the study said. The new species was identified by its body proportions, head shape, internal anatomy and other subtle physical features, the study said. DNA analysis found the new species had at least 2% genetic divergence from related species. The research team included Bárbara Calegari, Jörg Freyhof, Conor Waldock, Bernhard Wegscheider, Dario Josi, Lukas Rüber and Ole Seehausen. The team also discovered a second new species in Switzerland: the lake stone loach.
Miami Herald
6 days ago
- Science
- Miami Herald
‘Robust' creature with ‘slim' lips found in Switzerland lake. It's a new species
In a mid-sized lake of Switzerland, a 'robust' creature with 'slim' bumpy lips swam through the shallow water, or it tried to, at least. But something zapped it and caused it to float to the surface. Scientists scooped up their catch — and realized they'd discovered a new species. A team of researchers spent two years visiting lakes and rivers of Switzerland as part of a biodiversity project. They suspected that some of the fish living in these waterways were being misidentified, according to a study published July 2 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Fish Biology. To investigate, researchers collected dozens of new specimens through electrofishing and combed archive collections for older specimens, the study said. Next, the team analyzed the DNA of the fish and studied their appearances. A pattern emerged: Some of the lake-dwelling fish were genetically distinct and had subtle but consistent physical differences from known species, the study said. Researchers realized they found a new species: Barbatula ommata, or the lake stone loach. Lake stone loaches have 'robust and elongate' bodies, reaching over 3 inches in length, the study said. They have 'small' nostrils and 'wide' mouths with 'slim,' bumpy lips. Photos show the yellowy coloring and pattern of the new species. The fish vary in hue but generally have 'irregular roundish blotches, randomly distributed' on their bodies, researchers said. Some fish have a 'gold iridescent coloration.' Lake stone loaches were found in shallow lake water from the shores to depths of about 4 feet, the study said. The fish were 'most abundantly found in small pebbles substrate, and among middle-sized stones' and primarily eat insects. Researchers said they named the new species after the Greek word for 'eyes' because of the 'great diameter of its eyes.' The new species' common name refers to its natural habitat. So far, lake stone loaches have been found in seven lakes in Switzerland, the study said. Historic records suggest the fish used to live in two more lakes 'but that its population has since declined drastically, likely potentially approaching local extinction,' the study said. Researchers considered the new species to be endangered because of its limited distribution, decreasing population and the human-induced 'habitat degradation, primarily from urbanisation, pollution' and construction along lake shores. The new species was identified by its coloring, lip shape, body proportions, internal anatomy and other subtle physical features, the study said. DNA analysis found the new species had at least 2% genetic divergence from related species. The research team included Bárbara Calegari, Jörg Freyhof, Conor Waldock, Bernhard Wegscheider, Dario Josi, Lukas Rüber and Ole Seehausen. The team also discovered a second new species: the North-Prealpine stone loach.
Miami Herald
11-03-2025
- Science
- Miami Herald
Eyeless creature — with pink body — found in mountain caves in Oman. See new species
In the arid mountains of northern Oman, rocky caves hold pools of water. Naturalists were exploring these subterranean lakes in the Al-Hoota cave in 1980 when they discovered a white, eyeless fish. It was a species new to science, but when other scientists later compared it to similar species found on the surface, they believed the one found deep below was just a 'cave morph' of the same fish. Now, additional study of the fish found in the Oman cave, as well as other fish from the region, suggests not only that the underground fish is a unique species, but it's 'evolutionarily young.' 'Garra cavernicola is distinguished from other Garra occurring in the Hajar Mountains in Oman and the United Arab Emirates by lacking an external eye and having a whitish or pink-colored body without any pattern,' Jörg Freyhof, researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science in Germany, wrote in a March 7 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa. Garra cavernicola, or the subterranean Garra, earns its name from the Latin words 'caverna,' meaning 'underground chamber,' and 'cola,' meaning 'inhabitant of,' according to the study. The fish is about 1.5 inches long with a 'stout' and 'compressed' body, Freyhof wrote. The fish's eyes are 'absent' from the outside, its eye sockets instead 'filled with fatty tissue,' adapted to its subterranean environment, according to the study. When freshly caught from the water, the fish is 'pink or whitish' and its fins are 'usually transparent' at the ends and whiter closer to the fish's body, Freyhof wrote. Freyhof used what is called the 'evolutionary species concept' to determine whether this underground fish constituted its own independent species from similar fish on the surface, according to the study. The evolutionary species concept says a unique species 'is a single lineage of ancestor-descendant populations of organisms which maintains its identity from other such lineages (in space and time) and which has its own evolutionary tendencies and historical fate,' as defined by Edward O. Wiley in 1981. This means as soon as a population of animals is expressing physical differences from their species because of geographic or temporal separation, they can constitute a new species, according to the study. 'Subterranean environments are very different from surface waters, and as subterranean fishes genetically adapt to these environments, they follow their own evolutionary trajectory,' Freyhof wrote. 'As soon as these new adaptations, such as the reduction of the eye and pigmentation, become observable, they are a diagnosable unit fulfilling the criteria to be distinct species under the (evolutionary species concept).' Garra cavernicola may have gone down its own evolutionary path relatively recently when the species was confined to caves, making the species 'young' on an evolutionary time scale, Freyhof wrote. The Hajar Mountains are in northeastern Oman, a country on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula.
