The zoological team at Bristol Aquarium have identified that the collection’s turbot is a never-before catalogued species.
During the current temporary closure at Bristol Aquarium, the zoological team have been spending even more time with the animals than usual and have used their extra time swotting up on their classification and animal ID skills.
Aquarist Stacey Tonkin said: “We first noticed something was different about our turbot when we were doing some routine cleaning on our native tank. We noticed its tail fin was a different shape to the ones we have been studying in our downtime.”
“Turbots usually have a flat, triangular shaped tail fin however ours are round and jagged like an island,” she continued.
Turbots are a type of flatfish closely related to Plaice, Halibut and Sole, and can be found around the UK coastlines.
Since the discovery the aquarists have been researching flat-out about turbots further and now confidently declare that the turbot homed at Bristol Aquarium is a new species. Due to its oddly-shaped tail fin resembling an island, the team propose that it be named Turbo-Island Turbot in honour of the local legendary landmark, Turbo Island, famed for representing individuality in Bristol.
Whilst the team at Bristol Aquarium are patiently awaiting its entry to be confirmed within the official records, they have suggested its scientific name to be “Scophthalmus aprilfoolsicus” to hopefully bring a smile to people’s faces in the currently difficult times.
01/04/2020
