Context: Scientists from India, Germany, United Kingdom and Switzerland have discovered a new family of bony fish from the Western Ghats, and named it Aenigmachannidae.
A year after the discovery of the enigmatic Gollum Snakehead, Aenigmachanna gollum from the rice fields of northern Kerala, scientists conducted detailed studies on its skeleton and genetic assembly.
The study led to the recognition that this species, and its congener Aenigmachanna mahabali.
Images obtained from high-resolution CT scans revealed that Aenigmachanna gollum has a surprisingly large number of primitive characters.
Living fossils
Members of Aenigmachannidae are “living fossils” and comprise an ancient gondwanan lineage that survived the break-up of the supercontinent and the northward drift of the Indian subcontinent, about 100 million years ago.
Many of these species are blind, pigment-less, and have peculiar morphological characters that are otherwise not seen in species occurring in surface waters.
Recognition of Aenigmachannidae as a new family of bony fishes comes six years after the description of Kryptoglanidae, another unique family of freshwater fish endemic to Kerala.
The presence of two unique endemic families of freshwater fish in a small region like Kerala indicates the exceptional diversity and endemicity of fishes in this part of the world.
Threats
Ecosystems are under high levels of threat due to indiscriminate ground water extraction and pollution, and introduction of alien species in the dugout wells.
