In an exciting scientific breakthrough, three new fish species were discovered in Asia recently, that are Beaufortia Viridis, Beaufortia Granulopinna and Microdous Hanlini. These species are discovered by the research team at Shanghai Ocean University.
"Zoosystematics and Evolution" and "Zootaxa" are the publications where the research paper on this remarkable discovery is published. These species are found on the mountain streams in central Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and western Yunnan Province in China.
The team scientist was led by two professors of the Shanghai Ocean University named Wenqiao Tang and Li Chenhong, the team discovered when they came across the stream of streams in central Guangxi Zhuang that borders Vietnam.
The team during this investigation collected the specimens to photograph, measure and understand their physiology by extracting their DNA sample. The first fish that is identified as Beaufortia Viridis is a green-coloured fish with a striped body and have spot on the head.
This fish is also called as "green zebra," this species has the great ability to hide under rocks in self-defence from its predator, it clings on the rock and has a great grip taking the shape of a disk. It blends well with the rock as both fish and the rock are of the same colour, it camouflages with its settings.
After a lot of investigation done by the researcher, it was found that the species is a new one, it was revealed that the species is genetically 5.20 % divergent from the species closest to it.
The second fish species Beaufortia Granulopinna, was discovered by the research team when they reached the Yunnan-Guangxi border region where they found their second species having a broad head, this fish is similar to the Beaufortia ping which is a small fish residing in the region's hill streams.
The difference in the species was identified by their small tubercles that are located on their pectoral fins, it is the unique feature of the fish belonging to the Beaufortia genus.
The comparison was done between these two similar fish DNA, the findings revealed that the sequenced DNA of these specimens have a genetic distance of an impressive 11.15 %, significantly surpassing the usual divergence within the same genus.
After these findings, the researcher concluded that the substantial genetic difference strongly suggested that they had identified another new species.
The third and last fish species discovered was Microdous Hanlini, the second new species to be discovered in the genus Microdous by the team after Microdous Amblyrhynchos. These remarkable discoveries highlight the rich biodiversity of the region and offer new insights into the aquatic life thriving in its waters.
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