That's A Moray Monday: The Scooped Edition

No pretty pics of eels posed naturally in stunning reef settings this week. It's all about formalin-fixed specimens under harsh lighting since this Moray Monday showcases Gymnothorax baranesi, a newly discovered moray species from the Red Sea. It's a species so fresh off the taxonomic presses that it doesn't even yet boast a common name. As far as I know of, there aren't even any easily accessible images of this fish in the wild.

Jason at Cephalopodcast tipped me off to the news last week and I figured I'd get around to featuring the eel on the next Moray Monday. But science blogging is a cut-throat enterprise folks and not a place for laggards. Christopher Taylor of the blog Catalog of Organisms carpe'd his dium and posted a blog report on the discovery on his blog last Friday. While I had hoped to regard Christopher as a blogger friend, he will unfortunately be now known as the Kiwi git who scooped me. Only kidding, Christopher. Sort of.

Seriously though, Christopher provides a great description and link to the monograph of the holotype (pictured in the face close-up and somewhat curled specimen). The image of the species (below) is of a described paratype. The newly discovered species is known only from the northern parts of the Red Sea, Gulf of Aquaba region.