This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Researchers have described a new species of fish from the northern Red Sea, found at the entrance to a cave on a steep reef slope. Charon's pygmygoby (Trimma charon) is a small, translucent fish with a broad orange-red stripe, golden spots on its tail and an unusual four-part eye.
The two known specimens measure just 12 and 17 millimeters (0.47 and 0.67 inches). The findings are published in the journal ZooKeys. The species is named after Charon, the ferryman of Greek mythology who carried the dead across the river into the underworld.
The dead were traditionally buried with a coin to pay for the crossing. "One of the most striking features of the new species is the golden spots scattered across its tail fin," said Peinemann. "They cover most of the fin and resemble small gold coins." The name also reflects where the fish may live.
The team suspects the species is more common on deep "mesophotic" reefs below 30 meters (98 feet), which remain largely unexplored. "These dark, deeper, unexplored reefs could be viewed as a kind of 'underworld' beneath the shallow, well-lit and better-studied reefs most of us are more familiar with," he said. The fish was collected in May 2023 at Walih Island, at 30 meters (98 feet), the maximum depth of the team's scientific diving.
Despite extensive searches of similar habitats since, it has not been seen again. "So far, the entire species is known from only a single encounter and two specimens," said Peinemann. The team suggests it may simply be the shallow edge of a species that mostly lives deeper.
"Red Sea reefs below that depth almost certainly hold more undiscovered gobies." The new species looks similar to the pallid pygmygoby (Trimma anaima), which is found from East Africa to the Pacific but has never been recorded in the Red Sea. Genetic data suggest the two are close relatives, though further work is needed to confirm this. "While one species seems to have spread across much of the Indian and Pacific oceans, its closest relative appears to have stayed in the Red Sea and evolved separately for millions of years," said Peinemann.
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