Another strange but real animal that can be found in Patagonia is the Pouched Lamprey or Geotria australis Gray, shown in the image below.
Pouched Lamprey (Geotria australis). From [1].
This lamprey lives only in the Southern Hemisphere, in Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina (just like the Nothofagus trees, it is a relict of the ancient continent of Gondwana).
It is an anadromic species, that is, it breeds in fresh water and then migrates to the sea where it lives and matures.
This lamprey can be found in Patagonia, both in Chile and Argentina and its average length is about 50 cm (20 inches).
They swim upstream to breed (like salmons) and sometimes they exit the water by wriggling up the bank to bypass obstacles to migration. During their brief life as adults in freshwater, they stop feeding and die shortly after spawning.[3][4]
It is vulnerable to the salmonids (brown, rainbow, brook trout and salmon) that were introduced into Patagonia in the early 1900s.
Argentine Explorer Ramón Lista, was the first to report them in Lake Argentino, Lake Nahuel Huapi in the 1880s.[2]
Bibliography.
[1] Photograph in an Online Gallery Here, the original source is: Pez Raro del Limay - Novedades, see it Here.
[2] Berg, C.,(1895) Sobre peces de agua dulce nuevos ó poco conocidos de la República Argentine. Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires. B. Aires: Imprenta Juan Alsina. Vol. IV. pp. 5.
[3] Geotria Australis
[4] Geotria Australis Gray 1851
Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©
Patagonian Monsters
daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn
ReplyDeletelooks like a stick with a head
ReplyDelete