Godzilla Goby Species Discovered in Southern Caribbean
Posted on June 8, 2016
A new goby fish species has been discovered in the southern Caribbean. The fish has been named the Godzilla goby. The discovery was part of the Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP), initiated by the Smithsonian Institution.
The formal name of the new goby is Varicus lacerta. The name translates to "lizard" in Latin. The name refers to the reptilian appearance of the fish. It has bright yellow and orange colors with green eyes. The newly discovered goby also has a disproportionately large head and multiple rows of recurved canine teeth in each jaw. This characteristic also helped researchers give it the Godzilla name.
The goby was discovered by Drs Luke Tornabene, Ross Robertson and Carole C. Baldwin. Both are affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution. The researchers were in the manned submersible Curasub when they made the discovery. It searchers the oceans at depths up to 300 meters. A research paper on the fish can be published here in the journal, ZooKeys.
