This strange species has a thick coat that mimics colorful coral.
In the shallow seas near Australia, a familiar proboscised face emerges from clumps of red algae. The fish to which it belongs, however, is new to science.
The woolly, reddish fish is a variety of ghost pipefish, camouflaged fish related to seahorses. The species – described for the first time May 10 in Journal of Fish Biology – bears a striking resemblance to Mr. Snuffleupagus, Big Bird’s shaggy, mammoth friend on Sesame Street.
Ghost pipefish (Solénostomus) are so named because their extreme camouflage and geometric silhouettes leave the fish disappearing like apparitions in coral reefs. The long-snouted swimmers range from the Red Sea to the western Pacific Ocean, visually mimicking corals, algae, and seagrass with frightening precision. While scuba diving in Papua New Guinea in 2003, David Harasti, a marine biologist at the Port Stephens Fisheries Institute in Anna Bay, Australia, encountered a coppery, hairy ghost pipefish, unlike any of the six previously known species.
A small fish named after a mammoth character
Ichthyologist Graham Short and marine biologist David Harasti studied new specimens of Solenostomus snuffleupagus alongside unidentified ones collected in Far North Queensland in 1993 by the Australian Museum. This discovery represents the first new description of a ghost pipefish species in more than two decades.
Tap the arrows to see more photos of snouted species.
“He knew straight away that it was an undescribed species,” says ichthyologist Graham Short of the Australian Museum Research Institute in Sydney.
Harasti returned to Papua New Guinea six times, Short said, but was unable to find her. In the mid-2000s, divers reported seeing the hairy ghost pipefish around the Great Barrier Reef. There, in 2022, Short and Harasti managed to collect a male and a female to bring back to the Australian Museum.
The fish – no longer than a matchstick – evolved to move like floating algae debris, passively drifting back and forth, Short explains. “They’re just beautiful underwater… It’s just amazing that they’re actually fish.”
The hairy species is unique among ghost pipefish, not only for its filament skin, but it also has an additional vertebra and squatter shape. An evolutionary tree based on fish genes shows that the fuzzy species split from other ghost pipefish early in their evolution, around 18 million years ago.
Short and Harasti named the fish Solenostomus snuffleupagussince the pipefish’s hairy face and long trunk reminded Harasti of the character from the classic children’s program. The fish ranges from Australia and Papua New Guinea to Tonga.
Researchers say such discoveries show that even exhaustively studied and sampled coral reefs – like the Great Barrier Reef – can still harbor undescribed species. The duo’s next project: describing a ghost pipefish that faithfully imitates sponges.
