Smithsonian Scientists Link Unusual Fish Larva from Florida to New Species of Sea Bass from Deep Reefs of Curacao
Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - 17:00
in Biology & Nature
Identifying larval stages of marine fishes in the open ocean is difficult because the young fishes often bear little or no resemblance to the adults they will become. Confronted with a perplexing fish larva collected in the Florida Straits, Smithsonian scientists turned to DNA barcoding, which yielded an unexpected discovery--a match between the mysterious fish larva and adults of a new species of sea bass discovered off the coast of Curacao.