New Enigmatic Catfish: Lacantunia enigmatica
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 3rd, 2007
Lacantunia enigmatica shown above.Photo courtesy of John P. Sullivan.
I get interesting emails. Here’s a good one with a new species discovery to share:
I’m a fan of Cryptomundo and also an ichthyologist. I thought I’d point out an article we just published on an enigmatic catfish from Chiapas, Mexico (named Lacantunia enigmatica, appropriately). From DNA analysis we found that this species is apparently a relict of a once much more widespread clade of catfishes (claroteinea) all of which are today exclusively found African. It’s an amazing disjunct distribution for a freshwater clade. The paper, published in the latest Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia is available [as the following pdf].John P. Sullivan, Ph.D., Department of Ichthyology, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.
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Very cool. Actually, it looks tasty, like a small channel catfish.
Sooo, what’s the mystery again? There are several creatures of every type that shouldn’t be where they are, by our rules and standards, but that doesn’t mean that at one time maybe the oceans weren’t salty, or that there was a landmass that joined mexico and africa, or maybe some ancient humans brought it over. No one will ever know.