Craig is temporarily a post-doctoral fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who is looking for a permanent position. He spends most of his time balancing his overwhelming geekdom with normalcy so he can function in the real world. Luckily his wife likes his geekiness.
Peter Etnoyer is a Graduate Research Associate at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He studies deep corals and ocean fronts, and he loves to be on the water.
Kevin Zelnio is a Graduate Student Researcher at Penn State studying the ecology of hydrothermal vent and methane seep communities. He raises awareness of the plight of the spineless through folk music.
Fig. 1 from Miya et al.
It's easy to be a new species, even easy to be a new genus. You got to be just a little different. Yes...yes...we are all unique and special snowflakes. But to get your own order, you got to be really different. If you are the taxonomist erecting a new order, you got have big cojones and strong evidence.
Currently there are about 70 odd fish orders. Scratch that...70 odd plus one. Miya et al. erect a new order based on both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. The new order centers on the monotypic family (only one species in the family) Stylephoridae. The single species is Stylephorus chordatus, an extremely rare deep-sea fish affectionately referred to as Tube Eye. As you might guess, the DNA suggest that a new order Stylephoriformes is needed as the species as no close affinities with any other species. Genetic evidence suggest the "closest" relative is the Gadiformes (cod and allies) as opposed to the Lampridiformes previously suggested.
Tube-eye is a strange fish indeed. It possesses a pair of telescopic eyes that lie anteriorly when not feeding (B above). During feeding, the head is oriented up and back and the mouth is moved forward (C). The mouth cavity is balloonable and can greatly expand its size (38x). This creates negative pressure and provides suction for capturing prey.
Miya, M., Holcroft, N.I., Satoh, T.P., Yamaguchi, M., Nishida, M., Wiley, E. (2007). Mitochondrial genome and a nuclear gene indicate a novel phylogenetic position of deep-sea tube-eye fish (Stylephoridae). Ichthyological Research, 54(4), 323-332. DOI: 10.1007/s10228-007-0408-0
Life Science
Comments
Very, very cool. Not only the fish but the systematics as well.
Posted by: Snail | January 22, 2008 6:21 PM
WOW! Only a few weeks into the new year and I already know who is going to win weird animal of the year award. Nice find Craig.
Posted by: kevin z | January 23, 2008 6:12 PM
The mouth cavity is balloonable and can greatly expand its size (38x). This creates negative pressure and provides suction for capturing prey.
Just goes to show what a creature will do to get a good meal! LOL! I am a big eater myself but I think this one has got me beat! LOL!
Dave Briggs :~)
Posted by: Dave Briggs | January 24, 2008 6:05 AM