Post by Ardbeg... innit on May 19, 2008 8:51:59 GMT -6
Its not often that you come across something that should be edible, but to which no recipes exist. Ideas anyone?
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Townsville welcomes snot fish
IT looks like living snot, so it should be no surprise it was found right under our noses.
An entirely new jellyfish species was discovered this week living inside one of the exhibits at Townsville's ReefHQ, unbeknown to aquarium staff.
The species, found accidentally by Townsville-based scientist Dr Lisa Gershwin, has been described as an evolutionary `dead end', and unlike anything the marine stinger expert has ever seen.
The `snot fish' is about the size of a grain of rice.
It is flat and film-like, with two branches of tentacles on its back.
Bizarrely, the harmless jellyfish has its mouth on its underside, and its anus is wrapped around its miniature brain.
It glides along sand and on seaweed using a sliding motion, similar to an amoeba.
The snot fish is believed to eat microscopic crustaceans, catching them in its tentacles.
"He's lost the ability to sting and has no ability to swim. He's just an evolutionary dead end because he's lost the ability to do all the things we associate jellyfish with doing," Dr Gershwin said.
"But genetically he is a jellyfish.
"If you saw him in the wild, you'd think he was flatworm."
The snot fish was discovered in the seahorse tank, which is regularly stocked with fresh seagrass and seaweed from the waters off Pallarenda.
Dr Gershwin had been searching the aquarium for a different jellyfish.
"Here he is, in ReefHQ," Dr Gershwin said.
"There are about 20 different species of these in the world, and this is a new one right here in Townsville.
"Millions of people go through there, see the tanks and look at the exhibits, but no one's probably ever noticed these tentacles waving in the current.
"The tank's infested with them!
"We didn't damage the population at all by taking some out.
"There'd probably be more than 50 in this one tank alone, and we only took six."
...
IT looks like living snot, so it should be no surprise it was found right under our noses.
An entirely new jellyfish species was discovered this week living inside one of the exhibits at Townsville's ReefHQ, unbeknown to aquarium staff.
The species, found accidentally by Townsville-based scientist Dr Lisa Gershwin, has been described as an evolutionary `dead end', and unlike anything the marine stinger expert has ever seen.
The `snot fish' is about the size of a grain of rice.
It is flat and film-like, with two branches of tentacles on its back.
Bizarrely, the harmless jellyfish has its mouth on its underside, and its anus is wrapped around its miniature brain.
It glides along sand and on seaweed using a sliding motion, similar to an amoeba.
The snot fish is believed to eat microscopic crustaceans, catching them in its tentacles.
"He's lost the ability to sting and has no ability to swim. He's just an evolutionary dead end because he's lost the ability to do all the things we associate jellyfish with doing," Dr Gershwin said.
"But genetically he is a jellyfish.
"If you saw him in the wild, you'd think he was flatworm."
The snot fish was discovered in the seahorse tank, which is regularly stocked with fresh seagrass and seaweed from the waters off Pallarenda.
Dr Gershwin had been searching the aquarium for a different jellyfish.
"Here he is, in ReefHQ," Dr Gershwin said.
"There are about 20 different species of these in the world, and this is a new one right here in Townsville.
"Millions of people go through there, see the tanks and look at the exhibits, but no one's probably ever noticed these tentacles waving in the current.
"The tank's infested with them!
"We didn't damage the population at all by taking some out.
"There'd probably be more than 50 in this one tank alone, and we only took six."
...
