How a Tiny Guppy Mysteriously Traveled Hundreds of Miles
One researcher found records requesting guppies for a U.S. Army base once stationed at the Brazilian island.
Meet Poecilia vivipara—a small, shiny yellow guppy found in South America.
When a group of scientists visited the Fernando de Noronha archipelago a decade ago, they found the tiny freshwater fish. Questions immediately arose on how they got there.
Fernando de Noronha sits over 200 miles away from mainland Brazil. Like many of its type, it has volcanic origins. Its islands sprang up from underwater volcanoes erupting and forming land at the surface. This means it's difficult, to say the least, for animals from the mainland to make the journey to the island and form a stable population; so when scientists found the guppies, they set out to trace their origins.
"Poecilia vivipara lives mostly on freshwater habitats in the mainland, so we
