In case you have not seen it yet, this is the world’s smallest fish, and world’s smallest vertebrate, Paedocypris progenetica, a tiny skinny tranparent and distant cousin of the carp family. It was found in the peat swamps of Sumatra, an island in Indonesia, and reported by Dr Maurice Kottelat of the National University of Singapore and team report their discovery online ahead of print publication in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B in January 2006.
The left photo specimen, taken by Tan Heok Hui from the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research in Singapore, is a mature female measuring just 7.9 mm from nose to tail.
This fish, which has its brain exposed, developed highly modified fins to survive in its acidic water environment. The males also have a tough pad on the front of the pelvic girdle that may be used to help them clutch onto females during mating.
Dr Maurice Kottelat warned that these tiny fish are at great risk of extinction due to the rapid destruction of Indonesian peat swamps for oil palm plantations. According to Dr Susan Page at the University of Leicester, at the current rate of burning, peatlands in Borneo, Sumatra and Papua New Guinea could be destroyed before 2040, releasing a vast amount of carbon into the atmosphere. (Right Photo courtesy of Maurice Kottelat, Carnol, Switzerland and Raffles Museum)
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