2-foot-long sea creature with ‘fang-like’ teeth discovered as a new species
Off the northwestern coast of Africa, scientists aboard a research vessel pulled up the trawling net and dumped their catch onto the deck. In the haul was a 2-foot-long sea creature with “fang-like” teeth.
It turned out to be a new species.
An international team of scientists boarded the research vessel Dr. Fridtjof Nansen in November 2021 to survey “the fisheries resources, marine biodiversity, and oceanography of the Cabo Verde Archipelago,” according to a study published May 7 in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa.
During the roughly monthlong survey, researchers trawled the waters and caught “many fish species, including one adult spoon-nose eel,” the study said.
Initially, the team identified the eel as a known species, but during a follow-up “research workshop,” they realized they’d actually discovered a new species: Mystriophis caboverdensis, or the Cabo Verde spoon-nose eel.
The Cabo Verde spoon-nose eel has an “elongate” body, reaching just over 28 inches in length, the study said. Its “pointed” head has a “short, blunt” snout, “relatively large” eyes and some “fang-like” teeth.
A photo shared by Zootaxa in a May 6 post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, shows the new species. Overall, the eel is dark brownish gray with some white spots on its head, researchers said.
Little is known about the lifestyle of the Cabo Verde spoon-nose eel, but researchers suspect it is “a deepwater species.”
Researchers said they named the new species after the country where it was first discovered and, so far, the only place where it has been found. Cabo Verde is an island archipelago off the coast of Africa.
A photo shared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations shows the research ship that collected the new species.
The new species was identified by its DNA, body ratios, teeth shape, fin position, coloring and other subtle physical features. Only one Cabo Verde spoon-nose eel has been found so far, but researchers “have no doubt as to its uniqueness.”
The research team included Alciany Nascimento Da Luz, Sandra Margarida Correia, Evandro Lopes, Jose Gonzalez Jimenez, Diafodé Traore and Peter Nick Psomadakis.
This story was originally published May 23, 2025 at 12:22 PM with the headline "2-foot-long sea creature with ‘fang-like’ teeth discovered as a new species."
