科学家们已经知道250多年了，电鳗生活在亚马逊河流域，电鳗通过水发出脉冲电流来电击猎物。它们广泛分布于南美洲北部的沼泽、溪流、小溪和河流中，长期以来被认为属于一个物种。然而，通过现代基因和生态分析，史密森国家自然历史博物馆的研究人员发现，亚马逊盆地的电鳗属于三种不同的物种，它们是数百万年前从一个共同祖先进化而来的。这一发现发表在9月10日的《自然通讯》杂志上。

Electric eel produces highest voltage discharge of any known animal

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190910134323.htm

Two new species of electric eel come as a shock to biologists

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2215802-two-new-species-of-electric-eel-come-as-a-shock-to-biologists/#ixzz5zEBGWdiK

Journal reference: Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11690-z

Journal Reference:

1. C. David de Santana, William G. R. Crampton, Casey B. Dillman, Renata G. Frederico, Mark H. Sabaj, Raphaël Covain, Jonathan Ready, Jansen Zuanon, Renildo R. de Oliveira, Raimundo N. Mendes-Júnior, Douglas A. Bastos, Tulio F. Teixeira, Jan Mol, Willian Ohara, Natália Castro e Castro, Luiz A. Peixoto, Cleusa Nagamachi, Leandro Sousa, Luciano F. A. Montag, Frank Ribeiro, Joseph C. Waddell, Nivaldo M. Piorsky, Richard P. Vari, Wolmar B. Wosiacki. Unexpected species diversity in electric eels with a description of the strongest living bioelectricity generator. Nature Communications, 2019; 10 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11690-z