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Larva ikan yang tidak biasa dikaitkan dengan spesies baru bass laut
dari Curacao
Unusual fish larva linked to new species of sea bass from Curacao
Date:
May 13, 2014
Source:
Smithsonian
Summary:
Identifying larval stages of marine fishes in the open
ocean is difficult because the young fishes often bear little or no resemblance
to the adults they will become. Confronted with a perplexing fish larva
collected in the Florida Straits, scientists turned to DNA barcoding, which
yielded an unexpected discovery -- a match between the mysterious fish larva
and adults of a new species of sea bass discovered off the coast of Curacao.
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Identifying larval stages of marine fishes in the open ocean
is difficult because the young fishes often bear little or no resemblance to
the adults they will become. Confronted with a perplexing fish larva collected
in the Florida Straits, Smithsonian scientists turned to DNA barcoding, which
yielded an unexpected discovery -- a match between the mysterious fish larva
and adults of a new species of sea bass discovered off the coast of Curacao.
The team's research is published in the May 13 issue of PLOS ONE.
Most marine
fishes have a pelagic larval stage that drifts in the surface or near-surface
currents of the ocean―an environment very different from the one they inhabit
as adults. Two different environments often require two different body shapes
and appearances, resulting in larvae that look very different from the adults
of the same species.
The larva at
the center of this study first came to the team's attention from a photograph without
identification in another research paper. The scientists recognized it as a
member of the sea bass family Serranidae but were intrigued by its seven very
elongate dorsal-fin spines.
"This
feature isn't known in any Atlantic sea bass larvae, but it is similar to one
species of Indo-Pacific sea bass," said David Johnson, a zoologist at
Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. "We initially thought
the larva must have been caught in the Indo-Pacific Ocean, but we were
wrong." The fish larva in the photo was in fact caught in the Florida
Straits.
The team
obtained the preserved larval fish for further study and were met with an
immediate mystery -- a DNA sequence from the specimen did not match any known
fish species. That, along with unique morphological features, led the
scientists to begin describing the larva as a new species despite the absence
of adults.
Meanwhile,
in a separate project, Smithsonian scientists were using a manned submersible
to explore the deep-reef fish species off of Curacao in the southern Caribbean.
Among the fish collected were "golden basses," which the team
identified as Liopropoma aberrans based on general color pattern;
however, genetic analyses revealed more than one species. Combining this new
genetic information with available DNA barcoding data for all western Atlantic
sea bass specimens yielded an unexpected discovery: The larva from the Florida
Straits is the pelagic stage of a cryptic new species of Liopropoma from
southern Caribbean deep reefs. The mystery was solved, and a new species of sea
bass -- now known as Liopropoma olneyi -- was discovered.
The team
named the new species in honor of a deceased colleague, John E. Olney, who
studied and taught courses about marine fish larvae.
"This
was one of those cases where all the stars were properly aligned," said
Carole Baldwin, a zoologist at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural
History. "We discover a new species of sea bass on Curacao deep reefs that
just happens to be the missing adult stage of a larval fish from Florida, which
we only knew existed because it was included as 'decoration' in a scientific
publication. What a great little fish story!"
Deep reefs,
which extend from depths of 150 to more than 1,000 feet, are underexplored
ecosystems worldwide. "You can't access them using traditional SCUBA gear,
and if you're paying a lot of money for a deep-diving submersible that goes to
Titanic depths, you're not stopping at 300 or 800 feet to look for fishes, said
Baldwin. "Science has largely missed the deep-reef zone, and it appears to
be home to a lot of life that we didn't know about."
Researchers
are now able to study deep reefs in the southern Caribbean because of the
availability of the Curasub submersible, a privately owned, manned submersible
capable of descending to 1,000 feet. The work off Curacao resulting in the
discovery of L. olneyi is part of the Smithsonian's Deep Reef
Observation Project.
"We are
only beginning to understand the phenomenal diversity of life that inhabits
deep Caribbean reefs," said Baldwin.
Story
Source:
The above
story is based on materials provided by Smithsonian. Note: Materials may be edited for
content and length.
Journal
Reference:
- Carole C. Baldwin, G. David Johnson. Connectivity across the Caribbean Sea: DNA Barcoding and Morphology Unite an Enigmatic Fish Larva from the Florida Straits with a New Species of Sea Bass from Deep Reefs off Curaçao. PLoS ONE, 2014; 9 (5): e97661 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097661
Cite This
Page:
Smithsonian. "Unusual fish
larva linked to new species of sea bass from Curacao." ScienceDaily.
ScienceDaily, 13 May 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140513175213.htm>.
