Thursday, February 24, 2011

Are handfish walking towards extinction?

Handfish are a type of small, often strikingly patterned or colourful fish that tend to ‘walk’ on the seabed on hand-like fins, rather than swim.
Fifty million-years ago, they ‘walked’ the world’s oceans, but now only exist off eastern and southern Australia.
There are only 14 known species of handfish, nine of which were described recently.