It’s undeniable. The bright reddish-orange hues, the fuzziness, the snout…there simply is no other way to put it. This unique fish looks exactly like Mr. Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street.

“Once you see it, the resemblance to Snuffleupagus is impossible to ignore,” declared marine biologist David Harasti.

The similarity is so strong that even the team from the beloved children’s show gave their full backing to name the seahorse relative after Big Bird’s woolly pal. But while the hairy ghost pipefish Solenostomus snuffleupagus was recently described for the first time in the journal Fish Biology, Harasti has long suspected its existence. In fact, he spent nearly 20 years trying to find it.

The saga began during a dive near Papua New Guinea in 2001. While combing through coral, Harasti spotted a unique and wholly unfamiliar creature swimming through the water. Although it appeared to be some type of pipefish, no specific species came to mind.

“I was perplexed. I photographed a few shots on my old film camera, went home, and pulled out every fish book I owned. Nothing matched,” Harasti recalled. “I realized we might be looking at something entirely new to science. You don’t often get a moment like that in your career, where you realize you could be looking at a species no one has ever documented before.”

Although divers claimed to spot the mystery creature over the next few years, no one managed to collect or properly study an actual specimen. It wouldn’t be until 2020 that Harasti reunited with the perplexing pipefish. After learning of a sighting near the city of Cairns in northern Australia, Harasti set out with research partner and study co-author Graham Short to track it down once and for all. It took a few days of scouring macroalgae in the Great Barrier Reef, the pair finally scooped up a male and female pair for proper examination. 

After carefully studying them, Harasti and Short confirmed the ghost pipefish to be a completely new species. At that point, there was only one last thing to do: get the blessing of Mr. Snuffleupagus. Or, at least, the blessing of Sesame Street’s legal team.

Swimming with Snuffy

“We are delighted that our beloved Snuffleupagus inspired the naming of a newly discovered marine species in the real world,” Sesame Workshop senior vice president of global education Rosemarie Truglio said in a statement. “Connecting science with imagination and discovery is what Sesame Street has always been about, and this charming new species is a wonderful reminder that there is still so much to explore and learn about the world.”

According to the study’s authors, S. snuffleupagus is the shaggiest of all known ghost pipefish species. These lengthy filaments range in red, orange, and even green hues, which allows it to camouflage seamlessly into its coral habitat—and elude scientists for decades.

 

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