The newly described fish – named after Middle Earth’s powerful Lord Sauron – is vegetarian, eating mainly plants.
Scientists studying fish taxonomy in South America have taken the bold step of naming a newly described species after one of the most famous fictional villains – Lord Sauron, from J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
It’s unlikely that the sighting of this small fish was quite as terrifying as Frodo’s view of Sauron: “So terrible was it that Frodo stood rooted…” Nonetheless, the markings reminded the scientists of the great villain and inspired its naming, according to a new study published in Neotropical Ichthyology.
“As soon as my colleagues suggested the name for this fish, we knew it was perfect for it,” says Dr Rupert Collins, lead author of the paper and the senior curator in charge of fish at the Natural History Museum, London. “It looks just like the Eye of Sauron, especially with the red fins and orange patches on its body.”
The newly described fish species is a close relative to the carnivorous piranha, and both are part of the same family. However, Myloplus sauron is one of a group of fishes better known as pacu. It eats mainly plants, and its teeth are more like human teeth than to the renowned piranha. It was discovered when scientists were investigating the genetics of a widely distributed species called M. schomburgkii.
The new species is found only in a tributary of the Amazon River, called the Xingu River, which has a catchment area larger than France and contains over 600 species of fish. More than 70 of these are endemic.
It’s thought that 42 per cent of the fish in the Amazon River and its tributaries have not yet been described by science.
Another new species was also described in the paper. M. aylan was named for the late Aylan Moraes Andrade, who passed away prematurely last summer. Aylan was the young son of Marcelo Andrade, one of the co-authors of the paper, and Carine Moraes.
The news of this new species (Myloplus sauron) comes as fans of J.R.R. Tolkien and his Middle Earth are gearing up for the second season of The Rings of Power, due to be released at the end of August 2024.