Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Old eel is new again

"Living fossil" is an overused term (as well as self-contradicting), but off the coast of Palau lives an eel with features not seen since dinosaurs roamed the planet. Meet Protoanguilla palau ("first eel from Palau"), The fossil record on its type is blank for the last 100 million years. Excited biologists are comparing its discovery to that of the coelacanth, which reappeared in 1938 after a gap of more than 60MY.

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