Researchers Find New Genus, Species of Electric Knifefish in Brazil

Researchers have found a new genus and species of electric knifefish in Brazil.

The fish was discovered by Cristina Cox Fernandes at University of Massachusetts Amherst and colleagues. The team found the fish in the tributaries of Negro River in the Amazonia state of Brazil.

The fish, named Procerusternarchus pixuna, belongs to the group called Gymnotiformes, which are bony fish capable of producing weak electrical pulses. The group is commonly referred to as Neotropical or South American knifefishes.

According to Cox Fernandes, the discovery is important because it will help fine-tune classification of closely-related groups. The research is expected to help scientists understand the evolution and development of electricity-producing organs in fish.

Recent research in South America is helping scientists understand the origins of electric fish. Last year, University of Toronto Scarborough researchers reported finding a new genus of electric fish named Akawalo penak in shallow waters of a river in South America. Cox Fernandes and colleagues have published papers in the past describing another type of electric fish called "ghost knife fishes."

Ghost knife fishes are found in several large tributaries of the Amazon. Researchers at Indiana University are studying these fish to understand how weak electrical discharges help fish communicate.

Fewer than 100 species of the electric fishes were described when Cox Fernandes began her research in the 1990s. Now, the number of scientifically studied species has reached 200. These fish are not commercially important, which is why they are under-studied, the researchers said. 

"As environmental changes affect rivers worldwide and in the Amazon region, freshwater fauna are under many different pressures. Fish populations are dwindling due to the pollution, climate change, the construction of hydroelectric plants and other factors that result in habitat loss and modification. As such the need to document the current fish fauna has become all the more pressing," Cox Fernandes said in a news release.

The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.