‘It looked prehistoric’: angler describes fish that resembled creature from Alien

Rare mud-dwelling fish, with sharp teeth and no eyes, is believed to be a worm goby, but is not dangerous

Naaman Zhou

Fri 1 Mar 2019 22.03 GMTLast modified on Fri 1 Mar 2019 22.05 GMT

An Australian fisherman, who captured a rare, unsettling fish that resembled a creature from the sci-fi film Alien, says it was “not all that exciting” and he caught it with a beer in his hand.

Andrew Rose was fishing in the Northern Territory’s Kakadu national park when he snagged a 15cm-long worm goby – a rare, mud-dwelling fish with no eyes, a bony head and sharp teeth.

“It looked prehistoric,” Rose told Guardian Australia. “It looked like something you see in the movies. The lure wasn’t swimming right, I pulled it and it had this strange looking fish on it. We didn’t know what it was. We took photos, took him off the hook and put him back in the water.”

On social media, many compared the fish to a Xenomorph, a monstrous alien species from the 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien, and its sequels.

Rose’s fellow angler and friend, Tee Hokin, told ABC News: “The first thing I thought about was the Alien movie with Sigourney Weaver and that thing that comes out of people’s stomachs.

“It didn’t even move or wriggle. It was like stunned, like stealth mode … You’d probably shit your pants if it was bigger.”

Dr Michael Hammer, a fish expert from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, told the ABC he thought it was a worm goby, from the genus Taenioides.

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Britain's rarest freshwater fish could be making a comeback

Two adult vendace, a fish that is a relic from the last ice age, have been found in Bassenthwaite Lake in northwest England after more than a decade of being declared ‘locally extinct’.

The finding was the result of an annual fish survey of the Bassenthwaite Lake led by Dr Ian Winfield from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, which has been monitoring the fish community in the lake since 1995, first in collaboration with Environment Agency and now with United Utilities.

During the 2013 fish survey, a single young vendace was recorded. Dr Winfield says this is good news for wildlife in the lake: “Finding adult vendace in 2014 following the recording of a young fish in 2013 is excellent news giving great encouragement to everyone involved in the restoration of Bassenthwaite Lake and its fantastic wildlife.”

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First footage of rare anglerfish

A rare species of anglerfish has been filmed for the first time by US scientists.

The deep-dwelling fish was first described in 1899 from a dead specimen but has not previously been seen alive.

Using a remote-operated vehicle, biologists observed the fish "walking" with its fins and using its namesake lure.

Scientists suggest the footage also shows that the fish change colour as they age.

The discovery is reported in the journal Deep Sea Research Part I by the team from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), California, US.

They made their discoveries in underwater mountainous areas, known as seamounts, off the coast of California.

The species Chaunacops coloratus belongs to the family of fish known as anglerfish because of their unique method of predation.

Continued and video:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19369882