Meet the Newly Discovered Fuzzy Fish Species Named After Mr. Snuffleupagus From 'Sesame Street'

In 2003, marine biologist David Harasti of Australia’s Port Stephens Fisheries Institute was scuba diving off the coast of Papua New Guinea when he spotted an unusual little fish. It was red, fuzzy and unlike anything he had ever seen before. He snapped a quick photo, and then the strange creature quickly disappeared.

That moment triggered a yearslong search for the elusive fish. Finally, in 2022, Harasti and ichthyologist Graham Short of the California Academy of Sciences and the Australian Museum collected two specimens at the Great Barrier Reef. After extensive analyses, the duo has determined that the fish belongs to a new species—named Solenostomus snuffleupagus after the shaggy “Sesame Street” character Mr.

Snuffleupagus—which they describe in the August issue of the Journal of Fish Biology. The fish’s resemblance to the beloved Muppet demonstrates “the awesome power of natural selection,” Milton Love, a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute who wasn’t involved in the study, tells the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Sheena Goodyear. They’re known as masters of disguise, easily blending in with their surroundings.

That’s probably the evolutionary function of S. snuffleupagus’ scruffy look. They hover near it, and if you’re not keenly aware, you’ll swim right by it.” To determine whether the strange fuzzy fish was a previously undescribed species, Short and Harasti took detailed measurements of the collected specimens’ bodily features, including internal ones thanks to CT scans, and analyzed their DNA. Besides its unique appearance, S. snuffleupagus has more vertebrae than its kin, analyses revealed.

Moreover, the genetic examination hinted that the species split off from other ghost pipefish around 18 million years ago. The CT scans also showed remains of smaller fishes in the stomach of one specimen, marking the first documented instance of fish-eating in any member of the Solenostomus genus. S. snuffleupagus probably also feasts on small crustaceans, such as mysid shrimps and zooplankton, like its close cousins, according to the researchers.

Seahorses and true pipefishes are famous for paternal care, where males carry and give birth to offspring. But their relatives, ghost pipefish, don’t do this. Females hold the eggs using modified pelvic fins as a “brood pouch” until they hatch.