Comments | wtf_nature: 3 fish species are really one

crymson_vampyre in wtf_nature

3 fish species are really one

Jan 23, 2009 15:56

I saw this in my local paper today, and thought everyone here might enjoy this as well.

( And Mother Nature gets the last laugh again! )

gene, marine life, deep sea, sea life, genetics, fish

Comments 20

logansrogue January 24 2009, 18:55:00 UTC

Oh man, that's brilliant!

kumiriko January 24 2009, 19:04:36 UTC

Caught this on discovery channel the other day and it baffled me. Should have thought of posting it but i am a lazy person. Glad you got it

mightywings January 24 2009, 20:54:19 UTC

-idae is the familial ending, so presumably they are talking about several genera and species of whalefish. Popular science writing is irritating when it doesn't explain these things well enough.

ladytalon January 24 2009, 22:41:33 UTC

The article does say they're the same species now, but they went with the first-named family name--so the other two family names are obsolete. But it indicates that they're one genus, one species in that family.

davegodfrey January 25 2009, 03:20:03 UTC

The actual paper which is freely available says there are 9 genera and 20 species in the Cetomimidae. Parataeniophorus gulosus (a juvenile male) and Cetostoma regani (female) are identified as the same species, and another two are strongly linked together, but there's still the rest of the families to sort out.

mightywings January 25 2009, 04:00:53 UTC

Thank you! I was looking for, but not finding the real paper. Bad researcher skills on my part. I just thought the article posted here seemed really confusing.

Thread 6

scythemantis January 24 2009, 23:23:32 UTC

I'm more surprised by the "gills as extra mouths" than by the dimorphism. I wish I could find more and larger pictures...

inner_v0ice February 4 2009, 15:45:35 UTC

Me, I'm more surprised by the ones that have fused jaws and don't eat. So...they grow to maturity just to starve to death??

(The comment has been removed)

weird_as_hell January 25 2009, 06:53:56 UTC

I love your icon<3

skarygrl January 26 2009, 14:41:36 UTC

and *I* love *YOUR* icon. You are made of win!

weird_as_hell January 27 2009, 02:02:04 UTC

lol thank you