The houtinga fish that lived in the estuaries of the North Sea and was declared extinct in 2008, thanks to a published study on BMC Ecology and Evolution, we discover that he is actually still alive and well… or limp. This is the surprising discovery of research conducted by scientists from the University of Amsterdam and the Natural History Museum in London, who demonstrated that the species is actually quite commonbut the story is more complicated than it seems.
A classification error
The houting (Coregonus oxyrinchus) is a freshwater fish belonging to salmonid family, the same as salmon and trout, feeds on plankton and small crustaceans and can reach a length of about 40 centimetres. Its name comes from the Dutch word “houting”, which means “to scream”, perhaps due to the sound it makes when caught.
In 2008, houting has been officially classified as extinct according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. This list serves as an inventory of the conservation status and risk of extinction of biological species from around the world, and the decision was based on the morphological analysis of the gills and snout shape of this fish species.
According to this previous assessment, fish previously thought to be houting were actually a separate species of European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus), and this research led to the decision to classify the houting as extinct, but it seems that this was a mistake.
“It often happens that confusion arises as to whether animals belong to a species or not. Especially when fish are involved”
he said in a statement Rob Kroesfrom the Department of Marine and Freshwater Ecology at the University of Amsterdam, who later added:
“They often have many variations in morphological traits within a species. In this case, biologists have long thought that the houting was a different species from the European whitefish due to the length of the snout and the number of gill rakers. But these traits are simply not suitable for saying that houting is a different species. Our DNA research now clearly shows that this is not the case”.
A study on the DNA of houting has shed light
Kroes and colleagues at the Natural History Museum isolated mitochondrial DNA (mDNA) from historic houting specimens, one of which actually came from a dried North Sea hout, caught in 1754 and used by Linnaeus to classify the species. With this DNA, the team created a phylogenetic tree – a diagram showing the evolutionary lines of descent of several species – which demonstrated that this fish actually belongs to the same group as the European whitefish.
“The European whitefish is quite widespread in western and northern Europe, both in rivers and freshwater lakes, estuaries and the sea. Since we found no species differences between the hoting of the past and the European whitefish of today, we do not consider the hoting to be extinct.”
Kroes added.
To resolve this confusion, it would seem that the quickest solution is to change the species name to the Latin one, however a permanent adjustment of the name requires further research on the DNA of the dried specimen from 1754, and this may not be easy.
“The DNA is old and damaged but I think we should try. At the moment, the protected status of various coregonids is a disaster. According to the IUCN, the North Sea houting is extinct; at the same time, there are several European nature laws that stipulate that both cod and European whitefish must be protected. So we are actually protecting an extinct species that is currently swimming around”.
Kroes explained.
The discovery is an emblematic case of how the species classification can be difficult and error-pronealso shows how the conservation of biodiversity requires a in-depth knowledge of the evolutionary history and geographical distribution of the species.
Houting has probably been the victim of overfishing and habitat loss over the centuries, but it has not disappeared completely, on the contrary, has adapted to environmental conditions and has continued to survive as part of the European whitefish, this means that the species still has a chance to recover and repopulate its original areas.
However, to do so requires careful monitoring and a sustainable management plan for fisheries resources, among other things it is important to raise awareness among the public and the authorities about the ecological and cultural value of this fish “screaming”, which represents a living testimony to the natural history of the North Sea.
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