Long-Thought Extinct Michigan Fish Rediscovered In The Most Unbelievable Place
There are many kinds of fish in our lakes, and in our oceans, and new species are constantly being discovered, while others are slowly in numbers to eventually become extinct.
It’s just the natural circle of life, as more than 99% of the species that I’ve ever existed are extinct. Human interruption, however, has played a pivotal role in this, and when it comes to the Great Lakes fish, the Shortnose Cisco, many scientists thought it was long gone.
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Whether it was lost because of overfishing or invasive species like zebra muscles and Lamprey, many things can contribute to this fish's downfall.
Or so we thought, as a recent report showed, that the Shortnosed Cisco had been found as most recently as 2022 when scientists discovered them during a fish survey on Lake Superior.
Apparently, scientists didn’t even think the fish were ever in Lake Superior to begin with, which made the discovery even more shocking, as the report spoke about how and why they believed the fish to be extinct.
Despite more recent sampling using appropriate gear at suitable locations and depths, (the Shortnose Cisco) was last recorded in Lake Ontario in 1964, Lake Michigan in 1982, and Lake Huron in 1985 and is currently believed to be extinct.
This Has Happened Before
This is very reminiscent of the Coelacanth, which is a prehistoric fish that existed 400 million years ago and is believed to have been extinct between 65 and 80 million years ago until it was discovered back in 1938, as its Wikipedia page describes:
The coelacanth was long considered a "living fossil" because scientists thought it was the sole remaining member of a taxon otherwise known only from fossils, with no close relations alive, and that it evolved into roughly its current form approximately 400 million years ago.
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