New species of snake eel found

In News -Recently ,Researchers discovered a new species of snake eel from the ports of Paradip in Odisha and Petuaghat harbour in West Bengal along the Bay of Bengal.

About –

• The scientists have proposed the name of the new species as ‘Indian fringe-lip eel’ or Cirrhimuraena indica.
• The genus of the species is Cirrhimuraena.
  • The genus is represented in Indian waters by Cirrhimuraena playfairii or the fringe-lip snake eel that is reported from the Godavari estuarine system.
•  It is part of the Ophichthidae family of snake eels and its order is Anguilliformes.
• The new species belonged to the same clade as Cirrhimuraena chinensis and was separated from it morphologically and genetically.
  • Cirrhimuraena chinensis is a tropical, marine eel that is known from China and Papua New Guinea, in the western Pacific Ocean.
  • There are 12 nominal species belonging to the genus Cirrhimureaena known in the Indo-West Pacific.

Other new fish species discovered  from the Odisha-

• It was the second new fish species discovered by researchers from the Odisha coast in the past two years.
  • In 2018, researchers led by Mohapatra of ZSI had found a new species of moray eel which is a snake-like fish from the Bay of Bengal at Gopalpur.
    • The scientists named the species as Odissi moray (scientifically named Gymnothorax odishi) as it was first sighted in Odisha.
    • Before the Odissi eel, there was only a single species of brown short unpatterned eel named as Gymnothorax mishrai known from India.

Source :DTH