Scientists have described a new kind of fish from deep waters off southern Australia. They call it the helmethead sea muppet. It is no longer than a thumb. Its head looks like a horse’s head, its tail can hold things, and males carry their young in a closed pocket.
This fish and two related kinds look like seahorses. But scientists found that they form a separate group. They used detailed X-ray pictures to study the bones without cutting the fish open. They also studied DNA, the information inside living things, from the new fish.
Scientists know these three kinds from just seven dead fish. Nets and other fishing equipment caught them by accident, between about 50 and 125 metres deep. The new fish came from near the Gambier Islands in 2006. A museum stored it by mistake with animals without backbones.
Their bones and DNA show that the seahorse body shape developed more than once. Nobody has seen any of these fish alive, and nobody has collected one for almost 20 years. Scientists call them ‘lost species’. This does not mean they have all died out. It means people should search for them instead of waiting to catch one by chance.
