Triennial survey of selected sites in 2012 acquitted representatives of the "home" of prestigious scientific institutions, starting with the University of Melbourne, Victoria Museum and the Museum of the Northern Territory in Darwin. During the three-week monitoring carried out by scientists published helicopters to isolated rivers and freshwater rock pools. When trapping somewhere made do with nets and landing nets, while others had to dive. Reason? This whole area is indeed touted in travel guides and frequently visited by adventurous photographers, but solid systematic survey that has been conducted so far.
The greatest surprise to biologists waited in river flows and pools near Kimberley region, which were considered "the least explored Australian freshwater ecosystem." There were sixteen recorded previously unknown representatives of the family bručounovitých (Terapontidae), three species from the family hlavačkovitých (Eleotridae) and one species of the family gavúnovitých (Atherinidae). Twenty spectacular discovery of new species of freshwater fish mean for Australian ichthyologist biologists and several things.
Maybe it's that the number of indigenous species of fish abruptly increased by nearly 10% and that it is not the fastest increase in the number of new species recorded since the Australians began to describe the wildlife science. Or that the Kimberley region still nemapovaného almost overnight became one of the major centers of biological diversity. There are a number of species is observed because its occurrence is bound to only one of seventeen rivers in Kimberley.
"We have to admit that if we succeeded in a mere three years to increase the discovery of new species of freshwater fish in the region of Kimberley by twice, must necessarily have a wide range of animals in this area to escape our attention," says Tim Dempster, associate professor at the University of Melbourne . "It is amazing that the water in the Kimberley region is literally a treasure trove of new species. And even more amazing it is that we have these kinds never actually seek. "
Found species are still not among the protected or endangered, although their isolated habitat may suggest something about the future potential threats. Twenty new species, according Demsptera but only the tip of the iceberg and new discoveries of other animals to each other certainly soon.
Author: Radomír Dohnal
Source: Ekolist.cz