The eel Protoanguilla palau, which lives in the waters of the Pacific Ocean, turned out to be older than many of its relatives, who died out along with the dinosaurs
A regiment of "living fossils" has arrived: an international team of ichthyologists have discovered in the waters of the Pacific archipelago of Palau the forefather of all modern eels, living in good health in local underwater caves. The researchers described their find in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The new species was named Protoanguilla palau; The generic name Protoanguilla means "first eel." According to the researchers, the appearance of this fish has not changed for the last 200 million years, so the eel can compete with the well-known coelacanth for its antiquity.
The roughly 18-centimeter Protoanguilla palau is striking in appearance, with a brick-red body and iridescent fins with white edging around the edge. The structure of the fish's body at first made scientists doubt that they were dealing with one of the eels, but genetic analysis confirmed that the new species belonged to this order. Its morphology connects the features of modern eels with "fossil" characters, even more: some of the structural features of P. palau date back to even more ancient times than the now known fossil remains of the praugras. Among the characteristic features are called a smaller number of vertebrae in the ridge, fusion of some cranial bones, the presence of an intermaxillary bone and teeth on the gill stamens.
The sum of the features is new - and quite alive! - the species turns out to be not only older than the 100-million-year-old remains of eels, but even older than the cave where it was found (the age of its "underwater house" was no more than 110 thousand years).
The researchers say P. palau is an offshoot of the 800 living species of eels, with basic, original traits of a common ancestor. How he managed to keep his appearance intact since the days of the dinosaurs is a mystery. In the meantime, scientists rejoice at the opportunity to trace the evolution of an already very peculiar group even further.
Kirill Stasevich