New species of relative piranha named after Sauron from Lord of the Rings

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Thousands of fish species about 2,500 of them named have taken up residence in the Amazon River, but scientists estimate that nearly half of the sea creatures hiding in this immense body of water remain unknown.

While studying piranhas and pacus with the aim of better assessing the vital biodiversity of fish in the4,000 miles long (6,400 kilometers long)River, an international team of researchers has found and identified a new species of pacu, a piranha relative with a plant-based diet and teeth similar to those of humans.

Besides its strange pearly whites, the new species features striking orange and black markings, including a bold vertical black bar extending down its flank that researchers say resembles the fiery eye symbol of the book's villain Sauron and from JRR Tolkiens' Lord of the Rings film series. . The brands inspired the fish's name, Myloplus sauron, according toa studypublished Monday in the journal Neotropical Ichthyology.

The co-authors and I thought (the name) would be a good idea, because it really looks like the eye of Sauron, said study co-author Victria Pereira, a biology graduate student at the University of Paulista in São Paulo, Brazil. The researchers hoped the pop culture reference would draw attention to the fish and efforts to protect biodiversity in the Amazon, Pereira added.

This eye-catching fish isn't the only animal named in honor of Tolkien's Dark Lord. The Agenus of Butterflies was discovered in May 2023 with spots that resembled eyes on its wings, reminding researchers of the well-known symbol from the trilogy. There is also a kind oftree froga dung beetle and akind of dinosaursnamed after the character.

Besides Myloplus sauron, the researchers also discovered the species Myloplus aylan, which they described as having a slightly thicker black bar on its flank. The genus Myloplus is part of theSerrasalmidaefamily of fish, consisting of the piranha and pacu species.

Because piranhas and pacus are closely related and have similar characteristics, differentiating the species can be difficult, the authors noted in the study. Pacu and piranha species can change appearance during different life stages, and males and females are often different from each other. , also doing the various species difficult to distinguish, depending on Natural History Museum, London.

Myloplus sauron and Myloplus aylan have flat, blunt teeth used for chewing plants, a stark contrast to the razor-sharp teeth found in piranhas, but similar to those of their other pacu counterparts. While some species of piranhas are known for their carnivorous diet, all species of Pacus are primarily herbivores.

Previously, these two new species were grouped with another fish, Myloplus schomburgkii, due to the common black mark pattern on the fish's round body. However, through closer inspection and DNA analysis, researchers discovered that three different species shared this eye-catching design.

Researchers hope to further study Myloplus sauron and Myloplus aylan to learn more about their evolution and relationships with other species, Pereira said.

People who study the pacus have recognized for some time that several species were hiding in plain sight, said Matthew Kolmann, an assistant professor in the biology department at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, who has studied the fish. He was not involved in the new study.

The size of the Amazon and other basins, as well as their inaccessibility, make them a place of constant discovery, Kolmann said in an email. This means that it has taken and will continue to take the efforts of several generations of scientists to increase our knowledge of the region.

Pacus are important to their ecosystem largely because of their role in spreading seeds through their diet of mostly fruit, making them essential for the growth of rainforest trees and other plants. Fish tend to spread their seeds far from their parent plants, helping to expand the forest and limiting diseases that spread easily through crowded trees, Kolmann explained.

By discovering and identifying species that live in certain ecosystems, researchers will be able to better direct conservation efforts to protect endangered or at-risk animals, Kolmann said. It is particularly important for regions like the Amazon which are threatened byhabitat destruction,he added.

We run the very real risk of losing thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of species before we even know they exist and, by proxy, never understanding how these species contribute to the proper functioning of the ecosystem, a Kolmann said. Inventorying which species are found where and when is the first step in any future conservation effort.