The dumfounding looker and biodiversity of shallow sea precious coral reef are easily apprise and explore by us humans thanks to their proximity to the water ’s control surface . In many typeface , all one needs to explore these ecosystems is a mask and schnorkel . But it was n’t until the coming of advanced scuba gear and submersibles that marine scientists began documenting the wonders oftwilight zone reef : the alone coral - found habitats found throughout the world ’s fond oceans at depths of 60 to 152 meters ( 200 to 500 feet ) .
As such , expeditions into this mesophotic home ground – the curious slice of the urine chromatography column between the brightly lit euphotic zona and the dimdysphotic zonewhere photosynthesis is unacceptable – are continually introducing us to novel plant and animal species .
The latest deep reef denizen to be officially described in the annals of human discovery is a vividly colour fish so entrancing that it was named after the Greek goddess of beauty and eff herself . A squad of Witwatersrand researchers from the California Academy of Sciences happened uponTosanoides aphroditewhile surveying the ecosystem surrounding an archipelago called St Paul ’s Rocks , locate 965 kilometers ( 600 Admiralty mile ) off the seashore of Brazil .
" This is one of the most beautiful fishes I ’ve ever seen , " Dr Luiz Rocha , the Academy ’s Curator of Fishes , recall in astatement . " It was so enchanting it made us dismiss everything around it . "
Indeed , a video cameracaptured the momentwhen Rocha and fellow Dr Hudson Pinheiro first spottedT. aphrodite , perched in a rocky outcrop at 121 meters ( 400 foot ) , and were so besotted that they break to notice that a 3 - meter - retentive ( 10 - foot ) sixgill shark was oddly circling above them .
After the shark came and went peacefully , Rocha and Pinheiro were able to pile up several specimens of the species , which they transported back to their research lab in San Francisco . With elegant analytic tools at their disposal , the squad was able to ( non - invasively ) examine the fish more closely , though all it choose to appreciate their appearance is a flashlight : male frisk brilliantly yellow and pink chevron whereas female are a solid ruby-red - orange color . Pinheiro explains that most fish in cryptic reef are pink or red in color , as red visible radiation does not penetrate that far into the water , and thus the brute are mostly unseeable to would - be predator
The recent mission to St Paul ’s Rocks was conducted as part of the Academy ’s challenging research and preservation initiative , Hope For Reefs . Part of this program is focused on gaining perceptiveness into the manymysteries of lifein twilight geographical zone reef across the globe - and the threats stupefy to them by human activities and mood change .
A DNA analysis determined that the animate being belong to theTosanoidesgenus . It is the first member of this radical to be happen living in the Atlantic . According to the scientist , who have published their full description ofT. aphroditein the journalZooKeys , it is probable that the coinage is endemic to the St Paul ’s Rocks sphere . These remote formations , outcroppings of solidify lava that was pushed up into the ocean at the tectonic boundary of theMid - Atlantic Ridge , are home to many organisms that appear to live nowhere else on Earth .
" [ St. Paul ’s Rocks ] is very isolated and such a small island that very few metal money were able to colonise [ it ] , " Pinheiro tell IFLScience . " This feature prepare St. Paul ’s Rocks one of the good places on Earth to meditate nautical biodiversity , ecology , and evolution because it is easy to sympathize the origin of the life on the island and how communities operate . "
" It is not sluttish and sometimes it is a risky activity , but it is rewarding to uncover what these strange ecosystems shelter . We have been exploring shallow reefs for many years , so it was a natural progression to check out what was just a little fleck deeper — discovering the connections and divergence — and today we are able to go so abstruse that pretty much everything is unique . "
