Tiny New Fish Discovered in Southern Caribbean
Posted on June 10, 2013
A tiny new species of blenniiform fish has been discovered in the southern Caribbean. The fish is named Haptoclinus dropi. The colorful fish is about 2 centimeters (.788 inches) in length. It was discovered during a specimen catch off Curacao as a part of the Smithsonian Institution's Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP). Substation Curaco's manned submersible Curasub (pictured below) was used to catch specimens that live deeper in the ocean than people can dive.
Dr. Carole Baldwin, Smithsonian Institution, lead author of the study, said in a statement, "Below the depths accessible using scuba gear and above the depths typically targeted by deep-diving submersibles, tropical deep reefs are productive ocean ecosystems that science has largely missed. They are home to diverse assemblages of new and rare species that we are only just beginning to understand."
Information about the little new fish was published in a Zookeys paper.
