Biologists have found more than a dozen new species of fish during a trip to the remotest parts of Chukotka and Kamchatka Krai. As researchers found, these types of appeared two hundred thousand years ago.
the discoveries announced in the expedition, a senior researcher in Kronotsky state reserve Grigory Markevich. The information was announced at a lecture in the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian geographical society.
“the First find was a relic whitefish, previously unknown to science. Fish found in the waters that “flow down” to the Arctic. We believe that this kind of settled [in the lakes] before the start of the last ice age (more precisely, ice age – approx. ed.) and at the time of occurrence of the reservoir has not perished completely, so the form stayed there for about 200 thousand years to be adapted to lacustrine life form,” according to the scientist in the material TASS.
the Expedition has covered dozens of previously uncharted lakes on the territory of Chukotka, the former Koryak Autonomous Okrug and North of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The surveyed ponds are scattered over the area in 40 thousand square kilometers (!). The route of the expedition amounted to eight thousand kilometers. Part of the way scientists have done with the help of aviation.
It is the inaccessibility of these lakes was the reason that they have never been investigated.
“the Results are important for understanding the origin of different species of fish. Now we are analyzing genetic samples of unknown species. These data will allow us to understand the mechanisms of evolution of living organisms in Arctic conditions,” sums up Markevich.
By the way, before “News.Science” (nauka.vesti.ru) wrote about the study of ancient sediments of the Kara and Barents seas and what turned out to be the “sea serpents” on the coast of Chukotka.
Text: To.Science
