‘Dragon’ creature — found in depths of Antarctica seas — is a new species. See it

On the freezing waves of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, researchers aboard the ARSV Laurence M. Gould dropped a trawling net into the water.

They were hoping to catch zooplankton, but when the trawl came back up to the surface, a small fish was caught in the net.

About 5.5 inches long , the fish had an elongated body and bulging eyes, according to a peer-reviewed study published Aug. 30 in the journal Zootaxa. But, it was a larval fish, and not fully grown.

Andrew Corso, lead author of the study and previous Ph.D. student with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, said the fish resembled Akarotaxis nudiceps, a species of Antarctic dragonfish, according to an Aug. 30 news release from the VIMS.

Then, Corso compared the genetic material from A. nudiceps to the fish found in the trawling net. It wasn’t a match.

Akarotaxis gouldae, the banded dragonfish, has been identified as a new species, according to the study.

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Corso and the team visited multiple fish collections to find adults of the new species, and found that they had previously been collected and misidentified.

“There are two distinct bands on the sides of adult Akarotaxis gouldae that are not present on Akarotaxis nudiceps, so we were surprised that the species already existed in collections but had been previously overlooked,” Corso said. “In the world of fish taxonomy, it’s becoming common to distinguish species with genetics alone. Genetic testing is an extremely valuable tool, but our discovery highlights the importance of early life stage morphology and natural history collections like those at VIMS and other institutions.”

The fish is described as “slender” with a “wide snout” and “elongate mouth,” according to the study. It also has “enlarged, ovoid eyes” that bulge from its head.

A. gouldae is a pale brown color, and the bands are slightly darker, according to the study.

Genetic testing also revealed that the new species diverged from other related species about 780,000 years ago, a time when the Southern Ocean had a layer of glaciers.

“We hypothesize that a population of dragonfishes may have become isolated within deep trenches under glaciers, surviving on food pushed in by the moving ice,” Corso said. “Once the glaciers retreated, this subpopulation had become distinct enough to be reproductively incompatible with Akarotaxis nudiceps,” a required step for the establishment of a new species.

The new species was named after the research vessel it was captured on, the ARSV Laurence M. Gould, researchers said. The ship was named after the chief scientist on the first expedition to Antarctica and was decommissioned in April when the U.S. National Science Foundation did not renew the charter’s funding.

“To me, the loss of the ARSV Laurence M. Gould marks a setback in the scientific study of the Antarctic region,” Corso said. “Antarctica is warming faster than anywhere in the southern hemisphere, and there is untold biodiversity in the region that we’re only beginning to understand.”

For A. gouldae, part of the “poorly understood” dragonfish family, their habitat may remain unknown, according to the release.

The species spends most of its life in deep water, researchers said, but are suspected to nest in shallow coastal waters, meaning the young fish stay near the surface in the larval stage and could get caught up in nets trawling for krill.

Corso said this won’t only impact the fish themselves, but also other iconic Antarctic creatures. For example, dragonfish are an important prey species for penguins, according to the release.

“Since we know so little about the biodiversity of this area, we feel caution should be taken in extracting resources until we have a better understanding of the impact to the greater ecosystem,” Corso said.

The fish was caught off the western Antarctic Peninsula, south of Chile and Argentina.

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