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New, Ultra-Colorful Neon Fish Species Discovered
The small, vibrant fish, found in a Brazilian island reef, is named for the Greek goddess of love.
In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of feet underwater, the Greek goddess of love lives on—in the form of a dazzling reef fish.
In a new study published on Tuesday in ZooKeys, researchers from the California Academy of Sciences describe a new species of anthias, a common type of reef fish, named Tosanoides aphrodite or the Aphrodite anthias. The pink and yellow creature so transfixed researchers when they discovered it during a deep-water dive that they didn't notice a large sixgill shark swimming directly above them.
“This one is without a doubt the most spectacularly colored fish I've ever described,” says Luiz Rocha, an ichthyologist with the California Academy of Sciences, in an email.
The Aphrodite anthias is also