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600 New Species of Fish Discovered

Posted by Hemos on from the cataloguing-it-all dept.

zenobr writes "Some 300 scientists from 53 countries are creating a record of all known marine life, in a project reminiscent of an aquatic Domesday Book. So far more than 15,000 species of fish have been catalogued and 2 to 3 thousand more are expected to be catalogued before the project's end in 2010. Over 500 of the fish catalogued thus far are thought to be new to science. Full story on BBC News"

4 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe Domesday Book by ajf442 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Maybe they didn't mean Doomsday book. Maybe it should have been DOMESDAY book. The Domesday book was basically a census ordered by William the Conquerer about 20 years after the invasion.

    You can find out more at:

    http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/

  2. Doomsday book? Try Domesday... by HBI · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Domesday Book was the complete account of the lands and people of the nation of England undertaken by William the Conqueror in 1085-86. It bears no resemblance to the science fiction novel cited in the link.

    --
    HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
  3. Not quite true by Jonathan · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, this isn't the case. Species are simply populations that *tend* not to breed together -- for example, dogs (Canis familiaris), wolves (Canis lupus) and coyotes (Canis latrans) can breed together just fine and produce viable offspring, but because matings are relatively rare, they are still counted as separate species.

  4. Re:"New" species? by kfg · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, the first thing you have to learn about taxonomy is that stripes and dots don't count. Ever see the stripes and dots on a dinosaur? Neither has anyone else.

    Form, not color. A rose by any other color is still a rose.

    Taxonomically speaking the only difference between an Atlantic Salmon and a Rainbow Trout ( which has different colored dots and its famous red stripe) is. . . two teeth.

    (Yes, for those taking notes, that means that the Rainbow Trout is really the Pacific Salmon and the "Pacific Salmon" aren't. The Brook Trout and the Lake Trout aren't trout or salmon. They're Char. That's what happens when you let the "people" name things before the taxonomists get there).

    KFG