Electric Knifefish: New Genus and Species of Electric fish Discovered in Brazil

A new species and genus of electric fish has been discovered in the tributaries of Negro River in the Amazonia State of Brazil.

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in collaboration with Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia (INPA), Brazil, discovered a new genus and species of electric knifefish that is known to produce electric discharge in distinct pulses, which is easily detected by a few other fish.

Found in several tributaries of the Negro River in the Amazonia State of Brazil, the new bluntnose knifefish named Procerusternarchus pixuna belongs to a group of bony fishes called Gymnotiformes, which are commonly called as South American knifefish, reports Sci-News.

This discovery was led by Professor Cristina Cox Fernandes at UMass Amherst, with Adília Nogueira and José Antônio Alves-Gomes of INPA.

Cox-Fernandes says, "The discovery of this species is leading to a new interpretation of classifications and interrelationships among closely related groups. She adds that as the diversity of electric fishes becomes more thoroughly documented, researchers will be able to explore possible causes of this group's adaptive radiation over evolutionary time."

 Prior to this ichthyologists John Lundberg at the Academy of Science in Philadelphia described the finding of three electric fishes.  They reported details of the most abundant species of apteronotid also called the ghost knife fish that belong to the family of electric fish and is very common in the Amazon River and its tributaries.

When Cox-Fernandes started studying the diversity of electric fish in the early 1990s, there were less than 100 species that were scientifically described.  But there has been a two-fold increase in the number based on the studies she did. 

Though the electric fishes are of not any major commercial importance and are under studied,  Cox-Fernandes highlights the need for more taxonomic studies.

She says, "As environmental changes affect rivers worldwide and in the Amazon region, freshwater fauna are under many different pressures. Fish populations are dwindling due to the pollution, climate change, the construction of hydroelectric plants and other factors that result in habitat loss and modification. As such the need to document the current fish fauna has become all the more pressing."

The finding was documented in the Proceedings of the Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, with details of the species' anatomy, range, relationship to other fish, salient features of skeleton, coloration, electric organs and patterns of electric organ discharge.