# Big news in world of catfish and all fish



## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

A South American catfish was discovered recently, and it's called the Chiapas Catfish.
Its a funny looking catfish which somewhat resembles a cross between a north american Ictalurid cat and a Chaca. It gets half a meter long, and comes from a somewhat heavily fished river, but somehow escaped taxonomic notice for decades until last year.

Well, after a lot of study, this fish has proven to be weirder than previously thought. So weird in fact that it has been placed in an entirely new family.

Consider for a moment that that sort of thing has only happened twice in the last 60 years, once with the discovery of the Coelacanth, and once with the discovery of the Megamouth Shark.
Well, just like those two finds, this new fish is not new at all, but instead a prehistoric relic. A true living fossil, it has bizarre characteristics which mark it as one of the first catfishes, being very primitive compared to modern catfish. Even it's whiskers are attached "wrong."

It has been given the name of Lacantunia enigmatica, in reference to the fact that studying it has provided more puzzles than answers. The new family is Lacantuniidae.


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Where do you find these interesting bits of info? lol


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## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

yeah? cool!


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