Hello, this isWild Suzhou.

Today, we willtalk about fairy wrasses, which are a genus of very vibrant tropical fish. Whathappened to create the multiple different species of fairy wrasse?

The fairy wrasseis a type of small, reef fish. The males are known for their vibrant colors,which they like to show off during courtship. There are many different speciesof fairy wrasse, and their genetic diversity has been a topic of interest forsome scientists. There are around 45 species of fairy wrasses, and new ones arefound every year.

However, a newstudy shows that changes in sea level over the last few millions year may havesomething to do with the genetic diversity and evolution of fairy wrasses. Buthow does this work?

Fairy wrasses arenaturally found in the Indo-Pacific ocean, and are believed to have first evolvedin an area called the Coral Triangle, which is named after the abundance ofcoral found there. Then, fairy wrasse spread throughout the oceans and evolvedinto many different colors. Scientists think this is because of the history ofthe area they are found in.

TheIndo-Australian Archipelago is a raised area of rock found between Asia andAustralia. Many islands are found here, such as Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.This Archipelago is known as a “soft barrier” and this is because sometimeswhen the sea level is low, the raised land creates a wall that is too difficultfor fish to cross. But when sea levels are higher, fish are able to swim overthe archipelago.

Because of this,fish have split apart from each other on either side of the archipelago, and sothey could only interact and breed with fish on their side of the ocean. Thisisolates species and makes new species evolve faster. Additionally, the sealevel raised and lowered multiple times, meaning that new species were alsocreated multiple times.

For Wild Suzhou,I’m Ciana, thanks for listening and see you next time.