Since the early 2000s, divers across the southwest Pacific have kept photographing a strange little fish covered in shaggy, hair-like strands and trailing a long, drooping snout, moving through coral reefs like a colorful clump of seaweed. The peculiar animal appeared again and again in underwater photos from places like Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and the Great Barrier Reef, yet it had not yet been formally described as a species
Now, researchers say the elusive little creature is not just real, but a new species of ghost pipefish. In a study published in the Journal of Fish Biology, two researchers formally described the species as Solenostomus snuffleupagus, a very well-suited name inspired by the shaggy Sesame Street character Mr. Snuffleupagus.
The fish had effectively hidden in plain sight for decades, mistaken for a related species or overlooked because of its remarkable camouflage among thick red algae on coral reefs. Genetic analysis later revealed the animal had actually been evolving separately from its closest known relative for roughly 18 million years.
“Mr. Snuffleupagus was famously the friend that nobody else could see. For years on Sesame Street, only Big Bird knew he existed, and the adults simply did not believe he was real,” study co-author Graham Short told Discover. “This fish had exactly that quality. Divers kept reporting it, photographs kept surfacing from across the southwest Pacific, but it remained outside the formal scientific record. It was real, it was out there, but science had not yet caught up with it.”
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Confirming the “Snuffleupagus” Fish as a New Ghost Pipefish Species
Solenostomus snuffleupagus
(Image Courtesy of David Harasti)
Researchers initially suspected the fish might belong to an already known ghost pipefish species, but the closer they looked, the more unusual it became.
The earliest known specimens were collected from Australia’s Coral Sea in 1993, years before the species began appearing in underwater photographs.
“Several things pointed toward a new species from the beginning, but the most striking was the sheer density of the filaments,” Short explained to Discover. “Ghost pipefishes in the genus Solenostomus can have skin filaments, but in the species most similar to ours, the Roughsnout Ghost Pipefish (Solenostomus paegnius), those filaments are limited to a few discrete tufts under the snout.”
Short says the new species also has a much more compact body shape than other ghost pipefish, which tend to appear slimmer. Still, an unusual appearance alone could not formally establish a new species.
To gather stronger evidence, researchers brought the specimens to the Australian Museum for micro-CT scanning, which showed them that the fish possesses 36 vertebrae, more than any other known ghost pipefish species, which typically have between 32 and 34. They also spotted unusual internal skeletal arrangements.
DNA analysis strengthened the case as the team found the fish differed genetically from its closest known relative by roughly 22 percent, a gap Short described as “a very large number.”
Naming the Fish “Snuffleupagus”
According to Short, co-author David Harasti had the name in mind long before the fish officially became a species.
“From the moment he first photographed the fish in Papua New Guinea in 2002, the resemblance was obvious to him,” Short said. “The shaggy covering, the long drooping snout, the generally disheveled and improbable appearance, it all pointed in one direction.”
Before finalizing the name, the researchers even contacted Sesame Street for approval.
“They were enthusiastic and gave their full support, which meant a great deal to us. Connecting a beloved character to a genuine scientific discovery felt like something worth doing properly,” he told Discover.
The discovery also highlights how much marine biodiversity may still be hiding in ecosystems scientists thought they already understood well. Despite decades of diving and underwater photography across the Great Barrier Reef and surrounding waters, the fish remained scientifically undescribed mainly because its camouflage worked so well.
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Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
- This article includes information from a study published in the Journal of Fish Biology: Solenostomus snuffleupagus sp. nov., a hairy ghost pipefish (Teleostei: Solenostomidae) from the Southwest Pacific, with an integrative comparison to S. paegnius
