The people of Australia appear to have been happily munching away on a fish species unknown to science. The newly described species has been christened Epinephelus fuscomarginatus and is a form of grouper.
Back in 2000, a fisherman showed images of a mystery grouper to Queensland Museum fish expert Jeff Johnson. He struggled to get hold of any physical specimens, despite seeing more photos over the years, as they kept being traded for food. In 2017, however, Johnson came across five of the creatures waiting to be sold in Brisbane at a fish market. He purchased the fish and set out to work.
"I figured they were definitely a new species as soon as I saw them, so I bought all five and started the hard work of formally proving that they were a new species," Johnson said in a statement.
Dr. Jessica Worthington Wilmer, geneticist at the Queensland Museum, carried out several experiments in the molecular laboratory of the Queensland Museum and had ample evidence to prove it was a new species after comparing it with other specimens in different museum collections.
"I was told they were pretty tasty," he said.
The species isn't that distinctive-looking, which presumably explains why for so many years it fell through the net. It appears fairly unremarkable, sharing similarities with other Epinephelus genus groupers. However, what made Johnson stand out was a lack of markings on his body and dark edges around some of his fins. In Latin, fuscomarginatus means "dark-edged."
"Accidentally" meat markets are usually where new species are discovered by scientists. Locals already know the animal, but it may not have been categorized by science. Rare Earth did a video on this.
The_Literal_God_of_Memes18 oct 2020
3474
To be fair, Australians already confront crazy-looking (and deadly) animals on a daily basis, so it probably never occurred to them to question a fish that tasted pretty okay and didn’t kill anyone once ingested.
They probably didn’t expect to find out, though, that literally no one had ever heard of or seen the fish before, anywhere in the world.
Well, at least not before 2000, when a fisherman sent pictures of a mystery grouper to fish expert and Queensland Museum curator Jeff Johnson. But even though he saw images of the strange fish a few more times over the years, it wasn’t until 2017 that he got his hands on a physical specimen.
How do you identify a possible new species of fish if the fisherman ate it for dinner? Find out how Queensland Museum ichthyologist Jeff Johnson finally got his hands on a rare species of cod specimen after a 15 year quest. Read more: //t.co/nPlng6ukhJ #qldmuseum
— Queensland Museum (@qldmuseum) October 16, 2019
He nabbed 5 of them, actually, at a Brisbane fish market, and set to work identifying the apparently yummy swimmer.
“As soon as I saw them, I thought they were probably a new species, so I purchased all five and began the hard work of formally proving they were a new species,” he said in a statement. “I’ve been told they are quite tasty.”
He and museum geneticist Dr. Jessica Worthington Wilmer worked together to confirm his suspicions, and the new species was named Epinephelus fuscomarginatus.
The new subspecies of grouper isn’t so distinctive looking that people with untrained eyes would notice it straight away, and given that most groupers are fairly generic-looking fish, it’s understandable – if slightly worrying – that no one consuming it gave it a second thought.
The Epinephelus fuscomarginatus is about 27 inches long and lives about 750 feet down along the center of the Great Barrier Reef.
This grouper, interestingly, is not the only species to recently be discovered on its way to someone’s plate. In 2011, a new species of shark was discovered in a Taiwanese fish market, and in 2018, a different shark, thought to be extinct, showed up in a market in Mumbai.
In 2010, researchers discovered a species of monkey that sneezes when it rains, but lost their specimen when the locals in Myanmar ate it.
Oops. Dinner takes precedence over science, you know. I’m not even mad.
level 1
well to be fair that fish doesnt really look that different from most fish species, so I can easily imagine a fisher seeing this and thinking "i caught an ugly trout!"
level 2
Trout isnt native to Australia. We catch a fish and we think "booyah dinner tonight"
level 2
That fish look like a fish default skin
level 2
Have you met any of these "people"?
level 2
Whats not dangerous for them might murder like 3 of us so be careful
level 1
Unknown to science, well known to my digestive system
level 2
So I pray, unknown fish works!
level 1
What do Australians call the unknown fish?
level 2
· 2 yr. ago
Plays MineCraft and not FortNite
level 2
I read an article about. They basically thought it was just some grouper, so they were selling this stuff as grouper at fish markets
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