New Catfish Species Is Missing Link Between Families

A species of South American catfish newly discovered by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History and the Universidad Central de Venezuela appears to be a missing link between two modern families of fish.

Native to the Río Orinoco basin, the Lithogenes wahari shares physical traits with two other families of South American catfish. It has bony protective plates on its head and tail, similar to the Loricariidae family of fully armored catfish, and it also has a specialized pelvic fin that allows it to "walk" out of the water and push its way across land, similar to the Astroblepidae family of climbing catfish local to the Andes.

These shared characteristics between families suggest a common ancestry for these fishes, most likely located upland of the Orinoco and Amazon rather than the lowlands. Discovered some 20 years ago, original specimens were poorly preserved and not easily identified and classified. More recent specimens used for closer examination were collected from the Río Cuao, mostly plucked from the rocks by hand.

These results were published in a recent edition of American Museum Novitates (no website).

Source: ScienceDaily