NEWS103
20
Thishuge
Polypterusansorgii
was 86 cm long!
Photo:FouadChaloub
n the case of the Guinean Bichir,
Polypterusansorgii
,mattersaresomewhat
different. It exists in the form of three
preserved specimens that BOULENGER
used as the basis of the description of the
species in 1910. All three specimens were
caught together in the River Corbal at
Tchitoli inPortugueseGuinea (nowGuinea
Bissau).
When, in 2004, I published my book on
bichirs,thoseweretheonlythreespecimens
available tome.They arenow stored in the
I
Some speciesof animal aremythical, legendary.Sometimes it is completely
unknownwhether theyactuallyexist or aremerely theproductsof fantasy,
as in the case of the Yeti or the Loch Ness Monster. The study of such
phenomena is the province of cryptozoologists. Sometimes they discover
new species of animals whose existence was completely unsuspected, for
example theDwarfHippopotamus,theOkapi,and theCongoPeacock.
TheGuineanBichir
- amythdispelled
byFrankSchäfer
museums in Vienna (two individuals) and
London (one specimen). Back then I had a
slight suspicion that the three fishesmight
be hybrids, that is, crosses between other
species, or a rare color mutation, as no
additional specimens had ever been found
since.
But then,during thepreparationof the first
descriptionof
Polypterusmokelembembe
at
the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren (Belgium), I
discovered two additional specimens
collectedbyC.B.POWELL inNigeria in1991
(one in the Orashi River at Odieke, one in
Lake Isemu) and which Guy TEUGELS had
quite correctly identified as
P. ansorgii.
So
theydid exist! The twoNigerian specimens
were – just like the type series – relatively
small,around20cm long.
Vainattemptsat importation
Thereafter I renewed my efforts to obtain
Urzeitfische
