‘Bright’-eyed sea creature with ‘long’ tongue turns out to be new species in India
Trawlers off the southern coast of India hauled in their nets and began sorting through their catch. Among the haul was a 1-foot-long ocean predator with “bright” eyes.
It turned out to be a new species.
A team of researchers visited several fish landing sites and ports in the neighboring states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala between 2021 and 2022 in search of some very specific eels, according to a study published March 12 in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa.
Previous scientists had documented long-fin short-tail conger eels, or Ariosoma dolichopterum, off southern India, but the team wasn’t totally convinced. The eels caught off southern India just seemed different.
To settle the debate, researchers “collected a large number of (eel) samples from the Indian coast and conducted a more careful examination,” including DNA tests, the study said. Sure enough, researchers realized they’d discovered a new species: Ariosoma tamilicum, or the Tamil short-tail conger.
Tamil short-tail conger eels have “stout” bodies reaching up to 12 inches in length, the study said. Their heads are “short” with “bright” eyes, a “long” tongue and “small” teeth.
A photo shared by Zootaxa in a March 12 post on X, previously known as Twitter, shows the new species. Researchers described the eel as “almost” bicolored, having a “darker” back and “paler” stomach.
Tamil short-tail congers live on the “sandy bottom of shallow waters” and are “carnivores, mostly (feeding) on small crustaceans and fishes,” study co-author T. T. Ajith Kumar told McClatchy News via email. Trawlers often catch these eels by accident.
So far, the new species “seems to be widespread in the shallow waters of (the) entire Indian coast,” the study said.
Researchers said they named the new species after the Tamil language, “one of the oldest languages of the world.”
The new species was identified by its coloring, body proportions, pores, eyes, teeth and other subtle physical features, the study said. DNA analysis found the new species had at least 11% genetic divergence from other related eel species.
The research team included Paramasivam Kodeeswaran, Smrutirekha Acharya, Anil Mohapatra and Kumar.
This story was originally published March 27, 2025 at 11:15 AM with the headline "‘Bright’-eyed sea creature with ‘long’ tongue turns out to be new species in India."
