News Line

    Go to Home Back
Email this to a friend
Printable version
Tuesday, July 17 , 2012 - 06.18 GMT
SL names new fresh water fish after Dawkins

 
Sri Lankan scientists have identified a new genus of fresh water fish and named it after the evolutionary biologist and renowned atheist Richard Dawkins.

Lead researcher Rohan Pethiyagoda said the new genus, named Dawkinsia, comprises nine species that are found only in South Asia and are characterised by long filaments that trail from the dorsal fins of males.

The fish has previously been classified under the genus Puntius, comprising around 120 species of small tropical fish known as barbs.

Pethiyagoda said extensive studies in India and Sri Lanka showed that the level of diversity among such fish was “much greater than previously suspected”.

This was partly the reason that the study group had chosen to name the new genus after Dawkins.



 
 
 
   
   
    003
SS
   
   

top

   

Contact Information:: Send mail to priu@presidentsoffice.lk with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: July 17, 2012.

Copyright © 2008 Policy Research & Information Unit of the Presidential Secretariat of Sri Lanka. All Rights Reserved.