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New wood-eating fish species discovered in Peru

By Isabel Guerra - www.Livinginperu.com

(09/09/2010)A new species of fish, that eats wood, was discovered by a team of US scientists in the Peruvian jungle, in the area of Alto Purús, betwen the regions of Ucayali and Madre de Dios, reports Globoamazonia.com
The scientific expedition was conducted by the US's National Science Foundation, between Jul. 21 and Aug. 3.

One of the scientists, Brazilian Paulo Petry, told the press that DNA samples of this new species will be thoroughly examined.“The formal complete description of this species will be published in December in the Copeia magazine,” said Petry, who is also a Professor at the University of Harvard.

Petry said that these fishes have a kind of “spoon-shaped teeth” specialized in scraping tree logs that fall into the river waters.

He also clarified that there are another 12 similar species of fishes in the South American big rivers basins, but this one “ is the largest we have found, reaching some 70cm long.”

The expedition was part of the third stage of a long-term scientific study conducted during three years in Ucayali and Madre de Dios, near the rivers Purús and Yurúa.