Four New Snailfish Species found off the Aleutian Islands
Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently published a paper describing four new snailfish species they found on various survey studies done around the Aleution Islands.
Snailfish are usually tadpole shaped with soft, scaleless skin that is covered with a jellylike mucus. They are so slimy they are sometimes referred to as snotfish!
The official names of the newly described species are:
Allocareproctus kallaion - from the Greek word for comb in reference to its teeth.
Allocareproctus ungak - from the Aleut word for “whiskers” because it has so many whisker-like papillae on its head.
Allocareproctus tanix - unlike its cousins, this critter has a bald forehead so takes the Aleut word for forehead.
Allocareproctus unangas - Named in honor of the people of the Aleutian Islands. Unangas is the word for the Aleuts of Atka Island, a major island near the center of the new species’ known range.
The meaning behind the genus name, Allocareproctus, is a little funny. It is derived from greek, “Allo” meaning “other” and “Careproctus” meaning “head” and “anus” - So, sounds like can safely call them Snotty Butthead fish!?
You can read the researchers’ full report, Revision of the snailfish genus Allocareproctus Pitruk & Fedorov (Teleostei: Liparidae), with descriptions of four new species from the Aleutian Islands [pdf] which was published in Zootaxa.
Photo courtesy of NOAA
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Scorpaeniformes
Family: Liparidae
Genus: Allocareproctus
New GIANT Dinosaur - Puertasaurus reuili
Puertasaurus reuili is the newly named gigantic sauropod that was discovered in Argentina. National Geographic has the full story: Giant Dinosaur Discovered in Argentina. They also published five images related to the story.
Lead researcher, Fernando Novas, named the titanosaur after the fossil-hunters, Pablo Puerto and Santiago Reuil, who found and prepared the fossil.
His paper, Giant titanosaur (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia [pdf], was published in the Journal of the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences.
The Hairy Museum of Natural History has an excellent blog post discussing the massive size of P. reuili and comparing it to the mythical Amphicoelias fragillimus.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Sauropodomorpha
Infraorder: Sauropoda
Family: Titanosauridae
Genus: Puertasaurus
If you like sauropods you may be interested in two other recently described dinosaurs: the mini Europasaurus holgeri, and the long necked Erketu ellisoni
(Illustration and photo: Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences PR)
Name a Spider!
Go to www.nameaspider.com and immortalize yourself as a creepy crawly spider! Or give someone a truly unique gift.
The Queensland Museum has just launched a fundraising initiative to sell the naming rights to a limited number of yet to be scientifically described spiders from Australia. Bank of Queensland Managing Director, Mr David Liddy was first and named a new species of Ant spider, Habronestes boq, after the Bank of Queensland.
Money raised will help scientists to continue their extensive research into Australia’s remarkable biodiversity.