Scientists find most powerful electric eel ever

PanARMENIAN.Net - A newly-identified eel living in the Amazon basin can deliver record-breaking electric jolts, according to a study published Tuesday.

Researchers at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History have identified two new species of electric eel in the Amazon rainforest, tripling the known number of electric eel species.

One of the new species -- Electrophorus voltai -- can discharge up to 860 volts of electricity, significantly more than the 650 volts generated by the known electric eel species, Electrophorus electricus, the study published in journal Nature Communications found.

These electric eels -- which are actually a type of fish with an eel-like appearance -- can grow to up to eight feet (2.4 meters) and highlight how much is yet to be discovered in the Amazon rainforest, study leader David de Santana, a research associate at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, said in a press release.

"They're really conspicuous," de Santana said. "If you can discover a new eight-foot-long fish after 250 years of scientific exploration, can you imagine what remains to be discovered in that region?"

For 250 years, scientists have known that electric eels live in the Amazon basin. They just haven't known how many species were lurking there.

Scientists long thought the electric eels found in swamps, streams, creeks and rivers across South America were all the same species. The new study shows that the eels actually belong to three different species.

All three species look pretty much the same externally and use their electricity to navigate, communicate, hunt and for self-defense. But when scientists analyzed 107 samples, they found that the three species had different genetic material, unique skull shapes, and different levels of voltage.

Based on their research, de Santana and his team believe that the three species began to evolve from their common ancestor about 7.1 million years ago.