Microhabitat of Poecilocharax rhizophilus fish

Murilo N.L. Pastana & Willian M. Ohara
May 16, 2022
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River and river bed full of tree roots
Murilo N.L. Pastana & Willian M. Ohara

The river microhabitat where Poecilocharax rhizophilus was found. The species is named after the microhabitat where it lives among the roots of riparian vegetation (rhiza = roots; philos = attraction) that grow along the banks of muddy rivers.

Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History researcher Murilo Pastana and his colleagues have discovered and described two new species of Amazonian fish—one with striking red-orange fins and the other so small it is technically considered a miniature fish species—in a paper published today, May 16, in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Both species inhabit waters located at the bleeding edge of human encroachment into the Amazon rainforest roughly 25 miles north of the Brazilian city of Apuí.

SI-140-2022

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