Thursday February 29, 2024
The Hill —
Researchers say they have discovered a new species of tropical fish during an expedition to remote islands off the Pacific coast of Mexico.
Named the Halichoeres sanchezi, or the tailspot wrasse, the colorful species was found living among volcanic rubble in the waters surrounding the Revillagigedo Archipelago — an island system known as the “Mexican Galapagos” for its vast marine biodiversity.
The discovery was officially penned into the scientific record on Tuesday with the publication of a paper on the species in the journal PeerJ.
“It’s amazing that we can still find species that are new to science in a place where people are visiting pretty regularly — it just shows how big and complex the world is,” said UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Ben Frable, who was one of the scientists in the expedition.