Fish biologist Jeff Williams of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and colleagues were stunned recently to find a large and vibrantly colored new species of surgeonfish being sold at fish markets in the northeastern Philippines. Surgeonfish, particularly of the genus Acanthurus to which this one belongs, have been closely studied and collected in the Philippines by scientists for decades. They have a distinctive appearance and are well-known there. Sporting a prominent white band under its chin and having a vibrant orange head marked by wavy lines of iridescent blue, the improbable appearance of this distinctive new fish begs an explanation, so write Williams, Kent Carpenter of Old Dominion University and Mudjekeewis Santos of the Philippine National Fisheries Research and Development Institute. They are co-authors of a recent paper in the Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation that describes the fish, which they named Acanthurusalbimento, meaning white (albus) chin (mento).
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