- A newly discovered species of grouper almost became someone’s dinner before it could be described to science.
- Jeff Johnson, an ichthyologist with Australia’s Queensland Museum, had been asked about the fish before, 15 years ago. Over the intervening years, he would occasionally be sent pictures of the same type of grouper, one lacking distinctive features that struck him as a potential new species, but had never found a specimen to examine.
- Johnson’s big break came in 2017 when a fisherman got in touch and sent along a photo of a grouper, also known as rockcod, that the fisherman was hoping the fish expert could identify. Johnson recognized the fish in the photo as his mystery grouper and asked for the specimens so he could study them, only to be told that the fisherman had already sent the fish to be sold at a local market. But that didn’t stop Johnson from at last getting his hands on a specimen to prove this was an entirely new species.
A newly discovered species of grouper almost became someone’s dinner before it could be described to science.
Jeff Johnson, an ichthyologist with Australia’s Queensland Museum, had been asked about the fish before, 15 years ago. Over the intervening years, he would occasionally be sent pictures of the same type of grouper, one lacking distinctive features that struck him as a potential new species, but had never found a specimen to examine.
Johnson’s big break came in 2017 when a fisherman got in touch and sent along a photo of a grouper, also known as rockcod, that the fisherman was hoping the fish expert could identify. Johnson recognized the fish in the photo as his mystery grouper and asked for the specimen so he could study it, only to be told that the fisherman had already sent the fish to be sold at a local market.
This was the same thing Johnson had been told every time he’d been asked about the fish — it had already been sent to market or eaten by the people who caught it before he could get his hands on it. This time, however, Johnson was able to locate the market where the fish were on sale, in a suburb north of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia, and ended up buying all five specimens he found there.
“As soon as I saw them, I thought they were probably a new species, so I purchased all five and began the hard work of formally proving they were a new species,” Johnson said in a statement.
Part of that hard work included Dr. Jessica Worthington Wilmer, a geneticist at the Queensland Museum, running tests in the museum’s molecular lab. Comparing the results of those tests with related specimens found in the museum’s collections gave the researchers enough evidence to prove that the fish that very nearly became someone’s next meal actually belong to a heretofore unrecognized species.
The new species was given the scientific name Epinephelus fuscomarginatus and formally described to science in a study published in the journal Zootaxa last month. It is now one of the more than 90 species in the Epinephelus genus found all over the world.
Johnson says E. fuscomarginatus can be found off the central section of the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland at depths of about 220 meters or more than 720 feet.
“The fish reaches at least 70 centimetres [28 inches] in length and has been selling in fish markets — I’ve been told they are quite tasty,” he said. “The plain-looking fish, with no real distinctive markings, is typical of most other grouper species and probably explains why it has remained unnoticed and without a name for such a long time.”
CITATION
• Johnson, J. W., & Wilmer, J. W. (2019). Epinephelus fuscomarginatus (Perciformes: Epinephelidae), a new species of grouper from off the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Zootaxa, 4674(3), 329-348. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4674.3.2