Yssolebias (ex Cyprinodon) martae, a killifish collected only once in XIX century near Santa Marta, in Colombia, and with a disputed taxonomy
Frans Vermeulen made many trips to find this species again, but always failed
https://www.itrainsfishes.net/content/yssolebias_martae_001.php
The attempt at breedinf blight resistant trees is not that fruitful. I dove into Am Chestnuts wanting to reintroduce them to our forest. The most blight tolerant ones (which still are far from resistant) look like their asian counterparts and would not give the size nor shape of American chestnuts. They are also questionably tollerant despite claims. There are over 50 patents filed for these various hybrids! of I really think our best hope is Darling 58’s; where they use a fungal resistance naturally found in our native nature and spliced it in. These do perfectly well, the blight if it attacks, lives out its lifecycle leaving the scar but does not kill or “actually damage” the tree. Its 99.999% American Chestnut and is true to the classic form. Longterm studies are concluding, and its up to federal approval. There is no patent as intention is it will be cheap so anyone can purchase and plant. Was supposed to be approved spring 2023; will see.
I saw a fruiting Am chestnut once. It was small but ive never been so excited on a hike! There were some large standing snags in the area as well so it was neat to get an idea of their original glory.
also Salvelins profundus, a deepwater char endemic of Lake of Costance. it was tought extinct in the 70s for the eutrophication of the lake, but it was found again some years ago (also ‘evolved’)
this is a story of hope, and also remember to us that many times a lot of species are only not noticed
Oooh, that reminds me. I have an old book, Handbook of Tropical Aquarium Fishes by Herbert Axelrod. The 1970 edition includes some really rare ones that you wouldn’t actually expect to see in a hobby aquarium. One of them is Rivulus volcanicus – the only information is a narrative of how the living type specimens were accidentally killed on the flight from the collection area. I have been trying to find any reference to this species outside that one book, but there is nothing – not even in the list of synonyms on FishBase, where I would expect to find it even if it is not currently recognized. Now that’s what I call a “lost” species – even the memory of it is lost.
I’m guessing the book may have intended Rivulus volcanus, and mis-spelled the name?
https://www.gbif.org/species/2349367
If so, it seems it’s now known as Cynodonichthys hildebrandi:
https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1015001
No argument there. Incredible. And what a gorgeous palette! Thanks for posting this.
My guess is that I mis-spelled the name, since I didn’t have the book to hand when I wrote that. So it seems it isn’t a “lost” species after all.
Aphyosemion lujae and A. ferranti, killifishes from Congo D. R. are known only from preserved specimens and are not known alive, but similar forms were imported for the aquarium trade, but their real identty is unknown
the killifish worls has a lot of this stories
Don’t think this counts as lost, but I’ve always been fascinated by sharks. Their population is rapidly decreasing, along with lots of other predators, and I’m trying to learn why
Please stop using this forum as a way to do your homework.
I’m not even in school yet actually. Still on summer break.
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.