Chainsaw Man now boasts an achievement that few franchises ever will: an animal was named after one of its characters! The discovery of teeth from an unknown sawshark in Chile’s Bahía Inglesa region led to the description of Pochitaserra patriciacanalae, a sawshark species named after Pochita.
P. patriciacanalae was named in honor of Chainsaw Man’s Pochita and Chilean paleontologist Dr. Patricia Canales. This species is the second fish named after an anime character this year. Earlier this year, a species of tilefish, Branchiostegus sanae, was officially described.
Pochitaserra patriciacanalae Details
P. patriciacanalae was discovered and described by a team of paleontologists working in Chile’s English Bay Formation (Coast of Caldera). The team sifted through more than 661 lbs (around 300 kilos) of sediment from the Econssa sector and found over 241 microfossils belonging to 19 fish species. Alongside the discovery of Pochitaserra patriciacanalae, an extinct species of ray, Dasyatis manuelcamposi was also described.
The British journal Papers in Paleontology published the team’s research study, which was titled “Diving into the past: a new assemblage of Neogene elasmobranch microfossils from the eastern Pacific of South America.”
Dr. Martín Chávez, the study’s co-author (and the scientific director of the Center for Environmental and Human Sciences Research Atacama), gave the following reason for the sawshark’s name. “We wanted to create a memorable scientific name that would also connect science with current culture.”
For anyone unfamiliar with paleontology, it’s common for researchers to describe extinct elasmobranch species through their teeth. This is because the cartilaginous skeleton of these fish doesn’t fossilize well. Most descriptions are therefore made from the animal’s teeth or vertebrae. Even well-known prehistoric sharks like megalodon are only known from incomplete skeletons.
Pochitaserra patriciacanalae lived around 8 million years ago during the Miocene era.
The Marine Biology Corner
Wondering why sawsharks are called sawsharks? Their name comes from their elongated rostrum which has “teeth” protruding from its side. Their rostrum looks like a chainsaw, this is why the name Pochitaserra patriciacanalae is so befitting. There are currently several living species of sawsharks. The conservation status of individual species ranges from least concern to data deficient.
Like sawsharks, sawfish also have an elongated chainsaw-like rostrum. The main difference between sawsharks and sawfish is the position of the gills and their length. A sawshark’s gills are positioned on the lateral side of its body. A sawfish’s gills are located on its underside. Sawfish are significantly larger than sawsharks, as the largest sawshark only gets to around five feet. Sawfish, on the other hand, can be as large as 20 feet and weigh over 1200 lbs. Once abundant throughout their range, four of the five extant species of sawfish are critically endangered. Several sawfish are now extirpated from large parts of their former habitat.
Chainsaw Man Details
Chainsaw Man is a Weekly Shonen Jump manga that follows Denji, a teenager who worked as a rogue devil hunter with a chainsaw devil named Pochita to pay off his debts. But when Denji and Pochita are betrayed by their yakuza employers, the two form a contract and merge together to create a chainsaw-wielding devil who quickly subdues their attackers. Shortly after, the revived Denji joins Japan’s Public Safety Division as a professional devil hunter. But while the innocent lad expects a straightforward job that provides him with basic necessities, his life is unfortunately hanging on a ledge.
Tatsuki Fujimoto writes and illustrates the Chainsaw Man manga; Crunchyroll streams the series.
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Source: Diving into the past: a new assemblage of Neogene elasmobranch microfossils from the eastern Pacific of South America / Papers in Paleontology
© Villafaña et al.
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