- Australia has a new world record-holder. This tiny fish,
with a name that means short and stout, is the smallest creature with a
backbone ever identified.
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- Found on the Great Barrier Reef, near Lizard Island,
males grow to an average length of only seven millimetres and they are
so light that a million would weigh less than a kilogram.
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- A scientist at the Australian Museum, Tom Trnski, said
the new species' rapid reproductive cycle and short lifespan also made
it exceptional. It reached sexual maturity between two and four weeks of
age and died after about two months of life.
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- It was an evolutionary wonder, Dr Trnksi said. "That's
equivalent to a two-week-old puppy having young and then dying."
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- The tiny creatures are transparent except for their large
eyes, they lack some of the usual fins and have no teeth or scales. Females
develop 12 to 15 large eggs, which, relative to a human, are about the
size of a grapefruit.
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- The first of six specimens was discovered 25 years ago
by a museum scientist, Dr Jeff Leis. But it was only yesterday, after extensive
study, that the fish were officially described as belonging to a new species,
Schindleria brevipinguis, or stout infantfish, by American researchers
at the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, both in California.
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- The team's scientific paper, The World's Smallest Vertebrate,
was published in the journal Records of the Australian Museum.
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- The museum has submitted the species, now on display
in its exhibition, Uncovered: Treasures of the Australian Museum, for inclusion
in the Guinness World Records.
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- The largest stout infantfish found is a female 8.4 millimetres
long. The previous world record-holder for the smallest known vertebrate
was the dwarf goby fish, with an average length of 8.6 millimetres for
males and 8.9 millimetres for females.
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- Dr Trnski said the find showed that the era of discovery
of Australian animals was not over.
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- He said Australia had 4400 known species of fish, three
times as many as in Europe.
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- Along with the stout infantfish, 32 other new Australian
species were described in the journal yesterday. But the new record-breaker
could be under threat, because it has been found only in coral reef lagoons.
"If the expected effects of global warming result in the possible
loss of our coral reefs within the next century, then this species may
disappear," Dr Trnski said.
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- Copyright © 2004. The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/07/1089000229636.html
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