New fish species with human-like teeth named after popular movie villain
A new fish species has emerged, but it does not hail from the realm of Mordor as its name suggests.
The relationship between pacus and piranhas has been closely studied by researchers and while the species are related to one another, pacus have been labeled the "vegetarian piranhas" because of the fish's human-like teeth.
The newest addition to the pacu family was discovered swimming in the Amazon River and has a marking on its body that closely resembles a villain out of a J.R.R. Tolkien novel.
The Myloplus sauron is a new species named by researchers "as part of an effort to see through the confusion surrounding piranhas and their relatives, and better understand the fish living in and around the Amazon River," the Natural History Museum reported.
The fish has a large black band on its body that resembles the "Eye of Sauron," a disembodied form of the villain in "The Lord of the Rings."
"The elliptical body of Myloplus sauron, marked with a vertical, black bar tapering toward both ends, resembles the famous vertical-pupilled eye from the novel," said a study published in Neotropical Ichthyology, a peer-reviewed journal.
Pacus have been recognized by ichthyologists for years because of the vertical bar on its sides, but researchers have just now been able to genetically analyze the differences within the species.
"A group of ichthyologists led by Valéria N. Machado at the Universidade Federal do Amazonas, questioned whether this widespread pacu represented just one species or multiple species that look similar. Using morphological and genetic analyses, they discovered that there are three species with this distinctive marking, two of which they described as new: Myloplus aylan and Myloplus sauron," Mark Sabaj, Ichthyology staff member with the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Pennsylvania, told Fox News Digital in an email.
After gathering sufficient evidence based on color, body proportion and number of scales, researchers were able to identify the new species and distinguish it from the rest.
The orange-yellow patches on the fish's body may have played a role in the naming process because of its similarities to the colors of the fiery eye of Tolkien's antagonist from Middle Earth.
"The holotype specimen of Myloplus sauron was collected below two large waterfalls (cachoeiras in Portuguese), Itamaracá and Ananinduba. The holotype is the most important specimen because it is the only one to officially represent the species name and is thereby considered the ‘original,’" Sabaj continued.
The evidence gathered by the researchers of the three species was not enough to claim one ancestor, so they have decided to leave them all in the Myloplus genus until future evidence leads to a change.
The Myloplus sauron can be found inhabiting large rivers close to waterfalls, but these locations are heavily targeted for dam construction and hydroelectricity, which can impact the qualities that make these habitats appealing to the species, according to Sabaj.
"Like most rheophilic fish in this basin, M. sauron may be seriously threatened by changes in its habitat caused by alterations in the course of the Xingu River after the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, as the flow of the river changed in some stretches," the journal of Neotropical Ichthyology said.
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