World's tiniest fish identified

The smallest, lightest animal with a backbone has been described for the
first time, by scientists in the US.

The miniscule fish, called a stout infantfish, is only about 7mm (just under
a quarter of an inch) long.

It lives around Australia's Great Barrier Reef and has snatched the "world's
smallest vertebrate" title from the 1cm-long dwarf goby fish.

The infantfish, which is no longer than the width of a pencil, is described
in the Records of the Australian Museum.

Big females

The first specimen of the tiny creature (Schindleria brevipinguis) was
collected way back in 1979, by the Australian Museum's Jeff Leis, during
fieldwork in the Lizard Island region of the Great Barrier Reef.

But the creature was not properly studied for years, until HJ Walker of the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, California, US, and William Watson of
the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, US, picked up the case.

"It was a really good day when I first looked under the microscope and
recognised something that I knew was a new species," said Dr Walker.
"But at
the time I didn't realise that I was looking at the world's smallest
vertebrate."

Only six specimens of the stout infantfish have ever been found.

The females - at around 8.4mm - seem to be bigger than males, who usually
measure in at a diminutive 7mm. They are what scientist term
"paedomorphic",
which means they retain many infantile characteristics, even when adult.

Read the rest at BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3920183.stm

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
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