Scientists have yet once again spotted a new species among the reefs of the South Atlantic Ocean’s Abrolhos region. Initially, the new species was mistaken as a popular game fish — a dog snapper.
The new study that spotted it reveals that the new species completes its life cycle in different marine habitats, which are interdependent – like coral reefs and mangroves.
Rodrigo Moura of Conservation International (CI) and Kenyon Lindeman of Environmental Defense said,
This discovery that a large, popular fish is a species new to science shows how little we know about the oceans that surround us. It looks like other snapper species found in the Caribbean and eastern United States, as well as the dog snapper caught by fishermen here in Brazil, but it is a distinct species with different markings and color.
Including the new discovery, twelve species of the family Lutjanidae are now identified in the western Atlantic Ocean.