Discovered a new species of fish in France

Fishermen under the leadership of Dr. Philippe Keith from the Paris Museum of Natural History described a newly discovered fish species in France's Adour drainage system.

In France, the pake species is by default the Esox lucius group that is often popular with the Northern pike name.

These fishes live in the Rhine sewers, the Seine, Loire and Rhône have long recorded records.

Archaeological data showing the presence of Northern pake in the Pleistocene Aquitaine area (2.5 million years ago) showed that they originated from the Dordogne and Garone rivers.

Descriptive image of new fish - (Photo: GPJ Denys)

To identify the new species, Dr. Philippe Keith and his colleagues analyzed data on morphology and molecular structure of specimens collected from the 19th century to now in the main sewer system in France.

The analysis showed that the identification of three distinct Northern pike fish species and one that was never known, the new fish was named Aquitanian pike (Esox aquitanicus) because the sample was obtained in Aquitaine.

The fish are only gray but along the sides of the hull there are strange yellow and green stripes with 16-30 color bars like that, the adult fish has small marbles.

The Sci-News magazine quoted Dr. Keith as saying the new fish could be more than 1m long. These new fish are currently available in Charente, Dordogne, Eyre, and Adour.

The Aquitanian pike (Esox aquitanicus) have the same ecological, behavioral and predatory characteristics as Northern pike and can be bred together when living together.

Sci-News said studies are still underway to better assess the actual situation and distribution of this fish.