A new - to - sciencemoray eelhas been discover lurking in the dim river sass of the Central Indo - Pacific , inspire a mintage name that ’s a hat - peak to the swayer of the Hades , Hades . With a name that have in mind “ the unobserved one , ” Hades seems meet for an eel whose dark color means it commingle seamlessly into clay .
Its full species name isUropterygius hades , as inspired by Dr Wen - Chien Huang , first generator of the work describing the new species – the scientist was shape by Ralph Fiennes ' delineation of Hades in the movieClash of the Titans . An impressive name , it seems , for an every bit telling creature , as this strange moray eel has a few conjuration up its tail .
Of the 230 moray eel mintage live to science , we ’ve only been able to sustain that one spend the majority of its animation in freshwater . Of the marine species , there ’s only a smattering that can stomach the grim brininess you get near estuarine habitats like river mouths , so to find an estuarine specializer moray eel is really quite rare .
A femaleU. hades.Image credit: Dr Wen-Chien Huang
It ’s perhaps unsurprising , then , that the find ofU. hadeswas something of an accident . Three researchers from National Sun Yat - sen University were investigating a cave along the Philippines ' Puerto Princesa Subterranean River , in hunt of the bean - eyed serpent moray , Uropterygius cyamommatus . Its beany eyes make it well adapted tocave lifespan , but when the investigator went looking for it , they regain something else entirely .
What they had stumble upon was some kind of slim moray eel with a uniformly dark coloration . Not only was it rare as an estuarine specialist , but when captured and placed in a tank it did something known as tail - first burrowing , which is also very strange for a moray eel eel .
The morays also had small eye and a reduced number of sensational pores on their heading , traits that could be handy for river mouth life where the marshy conditions can back up you up middling . In which case , the compounding of its after part - first digging and sensory adaptations may indicate that this Modern - to - science species is an excellent burrower .
“ Uropterygius hadessp . nov . represents a rarified species of moray eel that inhabit turbid estuarine environment , favor mild , sloppy substrates , and burrow and hiding among rock or in fallen Rhizophora mangle leave , ” concluded the field authors .
“ moreover , we observed thatU. hadessp . nov . is extremely tender to light and consistently attempts to enshroud when exposed to it . This suggest that it may typically dwell turbid waters such as estuaries , result in its lack of acclimation to light-headed exposure . The small eye proportion ofU. hadessp . nov . may also indicate its adaptation to low-pitched - lighter conditions , wherein they primarily practice their chemoreception rather than vision to detect prey or avoid predators . ”
Who wants 20/20 imaginativeness when you ’ve been specifically tasked withruling over the deceased , anyway ?
The report is published inZooKeys .
