HONG KONG: For 150 years, scientists have known of just two so-called seadragons: the leafy seadragon (Phycodurus eques) and the weedy seadragon . But a new paper in the Royal Society Open Science has announced the discovery of a third, dubbed the ruby seadragon (for its incredible bright-red coloring. Found only off the southern Australian coastline, seadragons belong to the same family as the more familiar seahorses: the Syngnathidae.
“Seadragons are fish of mesmerizing beauty…Their ornamentation helps camouflage them among seagrasses and kelp in the shallow coastal waters of southern Australia,” the researchers write in the paper.
The new species was first noticed after a male was caught during a biodiversity trawling survey using in 2007. At first, scientists thought it was the weedy seadragon, also known as the common seadragon. But DNA results showed differently. After researchers realized they had something new on their hands, they scoured museum collections to see if anyone else had collected the new species. They found three more specimens lying in drawers.
“This new seadragon first entered the Western Australia Museum’s collection in 1919, and lay unidentified for almost a century,” said co-author Nerida Wilson of the Western Australia Museum. “Recognizing this new species demonstrates how museum collections underpin biodiversity discovery.”
In addition to DNA research, the team also took a CT scan (computer tomography) of one of the specimens.
“[The] scan gave us 5,000 X-ray slices that we were able to assemble into a rotating 3-D model of the new seadragon,” said lead author Josefin Stiller. “We could then see several features of the skeleton that were distinct from the other two species, corroborating the genetic evidence.”
A Scripps graduate student, Stiller was the first one to find the male specimen, which was carrying offspring. Like seahorses, seadragon males carry the eggs.
The scientists believe the new species avoided notice for so long because it is found in deeper waters off the coast—maybe even beyond recreational scuba diving. The deeper water habitat may also explain its darker, red color.
“Although the red color is conspicuous when out of the water, red light is rapidly absorbed with depth and so being red may effectively render the seadragon cryptic,” the researchers write.
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