New Moray Eel Surprise Discovery

According to Zootaxa (Smith et al., 2008), a new species of moray eel, Gymnothorax baranesi has been discovered in the most surprising of locations: in relatively shallow water in front of a major marine laboratory.

This finding of the new species took place in a well-studied area in front of the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences of Eilat (IUI). These specimens were collected from a depth of approximately 200 metres off Eilat, in the northern Red Sea. They could not be identified with any known species. It indicates to those who found it how much we still have to learn about the marine habitat.

This species was discovered by Shai Einbinder during a fish course that was taking place at IUI. It was described by Shai and Eran Brokovich of the IUI, with the help of the fish taxonomist David Smith from the Smithsonian in Washington DC.

They named the eel Gymnothorax baranesi in tribute to Dr. Avi Baranes, a rare individual who has dedicated his career to research of the deep bottom of the Gulf of Aqaba, and described, together with Dr. Dani Golani (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) many new species of fish.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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