Posted October 06, 2018 12:15:00 The most elusive animal on Earth, the diamondfish, has been found by an Australian scientist in the wild, making the species one of the most sought after.
The researchers say their discovery, reported in the journal Current Biology, could pave the way for more studies of the animals.
It was a huge success in Australia, where the species is known to live on a remote rock and is thought to be extinct.
The diamondfish is one of many species that has been recorded only once in a laboratory.
Scientists were surprised to find the species, which live in the South Pacific and have been nicknamed the “stone fish”, when searching for them in a remote area of the Pacific Ocean.
“I had to wait for an hour to see it,” said Dr John Wight, from the University of Queensland, who led the research.
He and his colleagues were also surprised to learn the fish had an astonishingly complex brain.
The fish has been nicknamed “the diamond fish” because of its distinctive shape.
It has four eyes, a pair of large mouths and a large, protruding nose.
Researchers also found that the fish’s brain is much larger than previously thought.
Its brain is more than 1.5 times larger than any known fish, and contains neurons that control a vast array of behaviours including vision, feeding and mating, and a sense of smell, as well as a large range of sensory functions including hearing, touch and hearing, the researchers said.
It was the largest known diamondfish brain and the most complex in any fish, they said.
It also contains a complex set of genes and proteins that could help it survive.
Other diamondfish species are known to have complex brains, but they usually live in their own families or are kept in captivity.
There is currently no good estimate on how many species of diamondfish there are.
The research team estimates there are between 500 and 1,000 species, but some researchers say that number could be much higher.
Dr Wight said the fish was not just a fish, but was a “living organism” with “complex, interlocking systems that regulate behaviour, memory, sensory and chemical systems”.
“It’s an extremely complex animal,” he said.
“It’s a living organism with complex, interlock systems that have evolved over millions of years.”
A lot of people think of the fish as just a snack, he said, but that was not the case.
“They are a food, they are a social animal, they live in very large numbers,” he added.
Danger of overfishing in the oceans ‘remains to be seen’ The researchers said the diamond fish’s unique biology could help researchers understand the way we eat fish.
They are likely to be “a valuable resource” for scientists studying ocean ecosystems, Dr Wight added.
“We need to be able to study the impacts of over fishing on fish populations, and that is something we don’t know,” he noted.
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