Jakarta, IO – Belida (Chitala lopis) has been rediscovered on the island of Java after being declared extinct by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2020.
The ancient fish with fan-like fins was last found on the island of Java 172 years ago (1851), per Medcom, Thu (25/1).
The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) said that fish came from research conducted from November 2015 to September 2023 at 34 sites in Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan.
This research was carried out collaboratively by BRIN with a number of parties, including Jambi University, Charles Sturt University Australia, a museum in Vienna and University of Montpellier in France.
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This discovery also helped expand the distribution of belida and answers the taxonomic problem of the Chitala genus in Indonesia.
Before it was confirmed as C. lopis, the research team carried out comparative analysis of DNA data and morphological characteristic vis-à-vis C. lopis species at London’s Natural History Museum. (un)