Cleaning Up the Cleaner Wrasses: Two New Species and a Massive Genus Shake-Up!
Raj Shingadia1 week ago
If you’ve been in the marine aquarium hobby for more than five minutes, you know exactly what a cleaner wrasse is. They are one of the coolest functional fish, reef doctors, famed for their essential cleaning services. But while these fishes are among the most intensely studied organisms on the planet when it comes to behavior, their actual taxonomy has been a confusing and neglected mess.
That all changed a few weeks ago.
Published in the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, a powerhouse team of taxonomists led by Reefbuilders Alum Dr. Yi-Kai Tea has published a comprehensive revision of the Labroides phthirophagus and Labroides bicolor species complexes. Utilizing a massive, cutting-edge genomic dataset, combining 1,019 genome-wide ultraconserved elements (UCEs) with mitochondrial DNA and ultra-fine morphometrics (say that three times fast), the authors didn’t just clarify boundaries; they officially added two brand-new species to the tree of life and completely reorganized how we look at this iconic genus.
Let’s dive into the details of this massive update.
for the whole article, including how one wrasse was named by school children's winning 2023 vote, please go to:
Cleaning Up the Cleaner Wrasses: Two New Species and a Massive Genus Shake-Up! | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog
If you’ve been in the marine aquarium hobby for more than five minutes, you know exactly what a cleaner wrasse is. They are one of the coolest functional fish, reef doctors, famed for their essential…
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