টপিক সীমারেখা
Fish Taxonomy
「Elucidation of species diversity」
More than 34,000 living species of fishes are known from the world. The species number of fishes continues to increase because 300 to 500 new species of fishes are described every year. This continued describing of many new species indicates that the diversity of fishes is still not well understood. Therefore, it is necessary to research fish species diversity based on morphology.
Explain what it means to “discover new species”
What you can think
1. to conduct research in unexplored places to discover unusual organisms and to confirm that they are new species.
In addition
2. new species are discovered by examining academic specimens that have already been collected and deposited in research facilities such as museums. As a result of comparing the described species with the characteristics of the specimens, if it is confirmed that the specimens do not agree with diagnoses of described species, it is determined that they belong to an undescribed species (= new species after described).
Scientific identification of fishes, revision of diagnoses of fish species, and description of a new species, all of which are interesting to fish taxonomy.
Hokkaido University has discovered new species of fishes by mentioned above.
Example of Research
At Hokkaido University, we have been actively researching fish taxonomy. There are 193 new species described. Then, how are “new species” discovered? Go to the next slide to get the answer.