Scientists have discovered a brand-new species of deep sea-dwelling fish, sporting a unique facial feature that led the team to name it after a character from the animated film Princess Mononoke, a cult classic produced by Studio Ghibli.
The fish – which belongs to the family Branchiostegidae, commonly known as deepwater tilefish – has two vertical stripes under its eyes, one white and one red. These stripes reminded the researchers of San, a central character in Princess Mononoke, who also has red striped facial markings.
But it’s not just facial features that led the team to name the new species Branchiostegus sanae – the connection goes deeper.
“In Princess Mononoke, San is a young woman raised by wolves after being abandoned by her human parents. She sees herself as a part of the forest and fights to protect it,” explained lead author Haochen Huang in a statement. “The film delves into the complex relationship between humans and nature, promoting a message of harmonious coexistence between the two: something we hope to echo through this naming.”
The new species also wasn’t discovered in what could be assumed as the “typical” way. Rather than a team of researchers scouring the depths of the ocean, B. sanae was instead spotted when Huang and colleagues were having a scroll through online seafood markets back in 2021. And just like that, there’s a new excuse for the next time your boss catches you on your phone during work hours – you could be about to discover a new species!
Branchiostegus sanae at a seafood market.
Image credit: Jiangyuan Chen
It’s not unusual to find a deepwater tilefish in such a market – they’re a popular type of seafood in East and Southeast Asia – but it was B. sanae’s facial markings that caused it to stand out among the rest, and it turned out to be a particularly unique find.
“Finding a new species in this group is a rare and fortunate event, especially one as distinctive as Branchiostegus sanae,” said Huang. Indeed, there are just 30 species in the deepwater tilefish family, with B. sanae only the second to be described in the last decade. It’s also believed to be the only tilefish species known to live in the South China Sea that has vertical stripes on its body.
By working with Chinese fishermen – who refer to B. sanae as “ghost horsehead fish” – the researchers were able to determine the specimens were collected from an area between the Xisha Islands and Hainan Island.
Deepwater tilefish are typically found in regions on the edges of oceanic and continental plates, where they hang out on the ocean floor at depths between 20 to 200 meters (66 to 656 feet).
The study is published in the journal ZooKeys.
