Aenigmachanna gollum

Aenigmachanna gollum, the Gollum snakehead, is a species of troglophilic snakehead fish that is endemic to the Indian state of Kerala. [1]

Aenigmachanna gollum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Anabantiformes
Family: Aenigmachannidae
Genus: Aenigmachanna
Species:
A. gollum
Binomial name
Aenigmachanna gollum
Britz, Anoop, Dahanukar and Raghavan, 2019

It was named after the cave-dwelling character Gollum from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings book series, as a reference to both A. gollum and Gollum being former surface-dwellers that evolved a troglobitic nature after adapting to the caves they lived in.[1][2][3]

A. gollum was discovered as a result of the 2018 Kerala floods, when several individuals were washed out of their aquifer habitat and into a paddy field in Oorakam, where they were found and photographed by a resident of the village, who posted their images online. The pictures were noticed by the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, who prompted a study into the species. It is the eighth species of fish known from the Kerala aquifers, indicating the presence of a large, hidden ecosystem in the hard-to-study habitat.[2]

See also

References
  1. Raghavan, Rajeev; Dahanukar, Neelesh; Anoop, V. K.; Britz, Ralf (9 May 2019). "The subterranean Aenigmachanna gollum , a new genus and species of snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) from Kerala, South India". Zootaxa. 4603 (2): 377–388. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4603.2.10. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 31717234.
  2. "New species of subterranean fish named after The Lord of the Rings character". www.nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  3. "'Precious' newly discovered subterranean fish named after The Lord of the Ring's Gollum". www.nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
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