News Notes
 World's
Tiniest Fish
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Australian scientists say they've
caught what they believe is the world's smallest and lightest fish.
Researchers at Sydney's Australian Museum say the stout infantfish
is so minuscule that they are seeking to have it listed as the world's
smallest and lightest vertebrate.
The microscopic fish, first discovered
by Australian scientists in 1979 but not classified until recently, is
formally identified as Schindleria brevipinguis.
Males of the species are just seven mm long while females average 8.4 mm.
The
world's current acknowledged smallest vertebrate is the dwarf goby
fish. Males of that species reach 8.6 millimeters and females 8.9 millimeters.
The stout infantfish, a wormlike thread with comparatively large eyes,
has no teeth, scales or pigmentation, and has only been found near one
island off
Australia's east coast.
It was listed as a new species in the Records of the Australian Museum,
Volume 56 Number 2. In the article, two American researchers, William
Watson (NMFS,
La Jolla, CA), and H.J. Walker (Scripps Inst. of Oceanography, UC-San Diego),
confirmed it as a separate species.
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