Although best-known as the home of the world’s largest living lizard, Komodo National Park in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia is also a noteworthy dive destination that attracts biodiversity researchers doing marine species surveys in the Coral Triangle. One of those scientists, Dr. Mark Erdmann of Conservation International, has found and described a gloriously pigmented new species of Flasher Wrasse, Paracheilinus rennyae. The fish, distinguished by its rounded dorsal, anal, and caudal fins, is named in honor of Renny Kurnia Hadiaty from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and in recognition of her scientific contributions to Indonesian fish taxonomy. Erdmann, Conservation International’s (CI) senior adviser to the Indonesian Marine Program, says that Renny’s Flasher Wrasse is endemic to East Nusa Tenggara, the province in southeastern Indonesia where Komodo Island National Park is located. Conservationists are hopeful that such discoveries will help protect such areas from development. Northern tip of Komodo Island, home to a living “dragon” and a diversity of marine life. “East Nusa Tenggara has more endemic species of flasher wrasses, MORE: Dragons & Wrasses: New Reef Species Discovered
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