세계에서 가장 작은 물고기

An undated photo released by Cornol, Switzerland and Raffles Museum Singapore,

shows a male Paedocypris fish. Scientists from Europe and Singapore say they have

discovered the world's tiniest fish -- a species that lives in peat wetlands in Southeast

Asia and, when fully grown, is the size of a large mosquito.(AFP/HO/Maurice Kottelat)

과학자가 발견한 세계에서 가장 작은 물고기 다 자란 고기의

크기가 큰 모기만하며 몸체는 다 들여다 보이는 투명이라고 한다

Scientists Discover World's Smallest Fish

5 minutes ago

BANGKOK, Thailand - Scientists say they have discovered the world's smallest known fish in threatened

swampland in Indonesia.

The fish, a member of the carp family, has a translucent body and a head unprotected by a skeleton.

Mature females grow to less than a third of an inch long. The males have enlarged pelvic fins and muscles

that may be used in reproduction, researchers wrote in a report published Wednesday by the Royal Society

in London. "This is one of the strangest fish that I've seen in my whole career,' said Ralf Britz, a zoologist

at the Natural History Museum in London. "It's tiny, it lives in acid and it has these bizarre grasping fins.

I hope we'll have time to find out more about them before their habitat disappears completely."

The fish are found in an acidic peat swamp on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Indonesian peat swamps are

under threat from fires lit by plantation owners and farmers as well as unchecked development and farming.

Researchers say several populations of the tiny fish, Paedocypris progenetica, have already been lost,

according to the Natural History Museum.

The previous record for world's smallest fish, according to the Natural History Museum, was held by a species

of Indo-Pacific goby one-tenth of a millimeter longer.

"You don't wake up in the morning and think, 'Today we will find the smallest fish in the world,'" Swiss fish

expert Maurice Kottelat, who helped discover the fish, said in a telephone interview from his home in Switzerland.

According to researchers, the little fish live in dark, tea-colored water at least 100 times more acidic than rainwater.

Such acidic swamps was once thought to harbor few animals, but recent research has revealed that they are

highly diverse and home to many unique species.