Next time you’re dreaming of visiting Middle Earth, consider a trip to India instead of New Zealand.

A new family of fish has been discovered in an India aquifer—and one is named for the Lord of the Rings’ subterranean-dwelling Gollum.

The eel-like fish are called “dragon snakeheads” and were recently identified by a group of researchers in southern India’s Western Ghats.

“We think this is the most exciting discovery in the fish world of the last decade,” Ralf Britz, an ichthyologist and lead author on a recent publication about the family, tells National Geographic.

Meet the "dragon snakeheads," a previously unknown family of fish.

"We think this is the most exciting discovery in the fish world of the last decade," says the study's lead author.https://t.co/s87JkHTqi7 pic.twitter.com/1pv0RuLyog

— Doug Main (@Douglas_Main) October 19, 2020

To date, the family only contains two species — the Gollum snakehead and the Mahabali snakehead — both of which live primarily in the area’s porous underground aquifers and only come up to the surface after heavy rains cause the aquifer to flood.

The discovery was sparked in 2018, when one of the study’s co-authors, Rajeev Raghavan, saw someone post on an Indian social media site about a unique fish retrieved from their backyard well. Raghavan shared the photo with Britz, and neither researcher was able to identify the species.

Raghavan and other colleagues then collected specimens and had Britz visit India to scientifically describe the fish. The group published an initial report in May 2019 that identified the fish as a new species with an independent genus: the Gollum snakehead, Aenigmachanna gollum.

After the paper was published, another researcher discovered a second species in the genus, the Mahabali snakehead. Then Britz and the team concluded these fish belonged to a new taxonomic family altogether.

Genetic analysis of these “living fossils” indicate the fish’s nearest relatives are the Channidae snakeheads found throughout Asia and Africa. The dragon snakeheads likely 120 million years ago when Africa and India were still connected. The channidae snakeheads have significantly evolved since the continental break, whereas their dragon relatives retain many of their primitive characteristics, such as a shortened swim bladder, fewer ribs, and lack a critical organ that allows their relatives to breathe air. They are also a rusty brown color and have eyes, which is uncommon for other underground fish. This suggests, according to Britz, that (like Gollum himself) the species may live not only underground.

Source: Sport Diver