This new fish species known as Snuffleupagus. You'll be able to in all probability guess why

LISTEN | Full interview with fish scientist Graham Quick:

As It Occurs6:36Snuffleupagus, a newly described species of fish, is an lovable little predator

Scientist David Harasti by no means had any doubt what he would title the tiny orange creature he first noticed on a diving expedition in Papua New Guinea in 2003.

However it will take one other twenty years for Harasti and his colleague Graham Quick to seek out the elusive fish once more, research it, and formally designate it a brand new species.

Meet Solenostomus snuffleupagus, named after the beloved Sesame Road character, Mr. Snuffleupagus.

“Snuffy for brief,” Quick, an ichthyologist on the California Academy of Sciences and the Australian Museum, instructed As It Occurs host Nil Kӧksal. “The resemblance was fairly uncanny.”

Quick and Harasti have now written a brand new paper, printed within the journal Fish Biology, describing S. snuffleupagus as a brand new species of ghost pipefish that makes its house alongside coral reefs, and disguises itself as pink algae.

‘The superior energy of pure choice’

The fish has fairly a couple of issues in widespread with its namesake — primarily its orange-brown colouring, the lengthy filaments that appear like shaggy hair, and its elephant-like snout.

Milton Love, a marine biologist on the College of California’s Marine Science Institute in Santa Barbara, Calif., says the fish’s muppet-like look demonstrates “the superior energy of pure choice.”

“Clearly, all the morphological options that we discover endearing are of some worth to the animal,” Love, who was not concerned within the analysis, mentioned in e-mail.

“Or, and right here is one other speculation, Gaia created this fish after having one too a lot of these rum drinks that include these little umbrellas.”

A snuffy fish photographed by a diver in Tonga. (Darren Rice/Matafonua Lodge)

However its similarity to Snuffleupagus goes deeper than meets the attention.

It is also extraordinarily elusive, very like Mr. Snuffleupagus, who, in his early appearances on Sesame Road, was solely ever seen by Massive Chook, main the opposite characters to mistakenly suspect he was imaginary.

Harasti and Quick tried for years to identify a snuffy fish once more after that first 2003 sighting to no avail.

Their luck modified in 2021 when some scuba diver buddies began seeing the little creatures on the Nice Barrier Reef and received in contact. The scientists headed to Australia to see for themselves, and on their second dive, they discovered the fish.

“It is an understatement to say that we screamed underneath water,” Quick mentioned. “We high-fived, gave one another a hug, and we have been simply so excited.”

An itty-bitty carnivore

With a purpose to describe the fish and ensure it as a beforehand undocumented species, the scientists checked out CT scans of specimens first collected in 1993 throughout exhibition to far north of Queensland, Australia, within the Torres Strait.

Quick says they have been collected alongside a number of hundred different fish specimens and tucked away till he and his colleague got here trying. However even again then, he says ichthyologist Helen Larson, who was a part of the expedition, suspected it was a brand new species.

S. snuffleupagus, like different ghost pipefish, is a cousin of the seahorse.

A tiny orange fish swims in front of a scuba diver's face — The newly described Snuffleupagus fish is smaller than a matchstick. (Darren Rice/Matafonua Lodge)

Utilizing iNaturalist, the citizen science platform, the scientists confirmed sightings of it in Tonga, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia, suggesting distribution throughout the southwestern Pacific.

And whereas it might appear like Massive Chook’s beloved bestie, there are a couple of vital variations between S. snuffleupagus the fish and Snuffleupagus the muppet.

Whereas Snuffleupagus is famously huge — larger even than Massive Chook — S. snuffleupagus is roughly 4 to 5 centimetres lengthy, in regards to the dimension of an airpod.

A large shaggy brown muppet surrounded by dancers — The Sesame Road character Snuffleupagus, pictured right here rehearsing for the 2019 Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade in New York Metropolis, is far larger and fewer predatorial than its fish counterpart. (John Lamparski/Getty Photos)

And whereas Snuffleupagus would by no means hurt a fly, S. snuffleupagus is a natural-born killer.

“They give the impression of being lovable, very cute. They’re very delicate and gradual shifting within the water. And it has been assumed that they solely eat small crustaceans like small shrimp,” Quick mentioned.

Not so, he says. The CT scans discovered tiny fish skeletons within the specimens’ stomachs.

“Each fish has a job, and they’re both consuming or being eaten. It seems, ghost pipe fish and specifically, snuffy … they’re identical to different fish,” Quick mentioned. “They’re predators.”

Quick says the widespread curiosity in S. snuffleupagus has been a delight, and he hopes it will not be the final fish he brings consideration to.

He and his colleague have already got their eyes on one other species of ghost pipe fish that’s recognized to divers across the Pacific, however hasn’t been formally described.

If it really works out, they plan to call it after one other muppet, however Quick would not say which one.

“Not but, as a result of I want approval,” he mentioned.