video

Video of the Palauan primitive cave eel (Protanguilla palau)

Jiro Sakaue

A video of the Palauan primitive cave eel (Protanguilla palau) swimming in the Pacific off the Republic of Palau. Jiro Sakaue, a Japanese research diver, first discovered the new genus and species in a Palauan reef cave in 2009. The eel has an independent evolutionary history that dates back some 200 million years, helping it earn it the 'living fossil' label. Scientists published the first full description of the animal in the August 17, 2011 online issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.