A stay particular person of Callistoctopus xiaohongxu. Credit: Zheng et al.
As they have been accumulating cephalopod samples in Dongshan island in China’s Fujian Province, a group of researchers got here throughout an fascinating discovering: a new-to-science species of octopus.
Actually, locals and fishermen have lengthy been acquainted with the species—however they stored mistaking it for a juvenile type of the widespread long-arm octopus (‘Octopus’ minor), whose commerce is widespread all through the nation.
Only when a group of scientists from the Ocean University of China collected a batch of specimens misidentified by locals from Dongshan Seafood Market Pier as ‘O’. minor to review them, did it develop into obvious that this was actually a separate, new species. That’s the way it acquired its personal title, Callistoctopus xiaohongxu, and a scientific description revealed within the open-access journal ZooKeys.
The scientific title xiaohongxu is a phonetic translation of the native Chinese title of this species in Zhangzhou, the place it was collected. It is a reference to its clean pores and skin and reddish-brown shade, that are amongst its most distinctive options. At lower than 40 g in its grownup stage, C. xiaohongxu is taken into account a small to moderate-sized octopus.
A stay particular person of Callistoctopus xiaohongxu. Credit: Zheng et al.
The researchers additionally observe that that is the primary new species of the genus Callistoctopus to be discovered within the China Seas.
A net-like internet construction on Callistoctopus xiaohongxu. Credit: Zheng et al.
More than 130 totally different cephalopod species are recorded in Chinese waters. Тhe southeast waters of China, because of the affect of robust heat currents, present splendid environmental circumstances to generate considerable marine biodiversity, and the discovering of C. xiaohongxu additional confirms the excessive variety of species within the southeast China sea, the researchers mentioned.
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More data:
Xiaodong Zheng et al, Morphological description and mitochondrial DNA-based phylogenetic placement of a brand new species of Callistoctopus Taki, 1964 (Cephalopoda, Octopodidae) from the southeast waters of China, ZooKeys (2022). DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1121.86264
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Scientists reveal the true id of a Chinese octopus (2022, September 15)
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