Mr. Snuffleupagus – a Character Comes to Life

As a child, you have most likely watched the famous puppet show, Sesame Street. Recently, scientists discovered a marine species that would be named after Sesame Street’s biggest member, Snuffleupagus!

Solenostomus snuffleupagus is the scientific name for this new species of ghost pipefish, named for its striking resemblance to Mr. Snuffleupagus. This fish was first noticed by David Haratsi during a dive in Papua New Guinea when he saw a small, hairy, red fish. He couldn’t stop thinking about this little fish he saw, and even after six more dives, he still hadn’t found anything. After Great Barrier Reef divers spotted some hairy fish swimming in the reef, David Haratsi and another diver named Graham Short dove into the water and found nothing on their first search, but found two of the ghost pipefish on their second!

David and Graham were very happy about their discovery. When they brought the fish back to the surface, scientists confirmed that it was, in fact, a new species of ghost pipefish. Not much is known about this species, but a fish was found inside the ghost pipefish’s stomach, which can almost prove that they are predators. More info could be found on the Wikipedia page in the works cited if it gets updated, because I’m sure that this information will be changed or added on to in the future. And with that, concludes my final article 🙂

Works Cited:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/snuffleupagus-fish

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-real-mr-snuffleupagus-meet-the-oceans-strangest-new-fish-species/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solenostomus_snuffleupagus