UCSI’s Michelle speaking of her parasites’ discovery

UCSI’s Michelle speaking of her parasites’ discovery

A monogenean specimen is permanently mounted on these viewing slides (front view), which are how they are displayed at the museums for deposition, displaying and archiving purposes.

Michelle’s newly discovered specimens have been deposited in the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum in Singapore and the Natural History Museum in the UK.

Michelle using a line as opposed to a net to catch groupers in Kilim, Langkawi, which are then dissected and investigated for ‘monogeneans’ – flatworms that have both male and female reproductive structures.

KUALA LUMPUR, August 6, 2019 – UCSI University's Aquatic Science Lecturer Dr Michelle Soo Oi Yoon has discovered 14 new species of marine parasites.

As a marine taxonomist, who studies marine life, Michelle’s discovery is considered record-breaking in her field of work.

“In the scientific community, the discoverer can name their newfound species after other people; create a name; or use Latin names. However, it is a big no-no to name them after one's very name,” she explained. 

“There's one species from ‘ikan belanak’ which I named L. bantingensis because I found it at Banting, Selangor and another which I named L. parvicopulatrix,” she said, explaining the ‘L’ before the names of each species was the abbreviation of Ligophorus.

“After dissecting a few mullets or Ikan Belanak, I realised they are hosts to this specific genus of monogeneans called Ligophorus. And the ones I had found did not match previously described monogeneans from any previous scientific publications. That's when I realised I had discovered something new,” she said.

According to Michelle, studying previous literatures was the preliminary step before confirming a new discovery. This, she said, was to avoid registering the same species with another name.

Michelle’s newly discovered specimens have been deposited in the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum in Singapore and the Natural History Museum in the UK.

The process of identifying and naming species, according to Michelle, is a tedious one.   

“After catching the fish from the sea, and dissecting and extracting monogeneans from the gills, to eventually naming them, everything has to be done under the microscope,” she said.

The identification, analysis and description process can take up to one year - depending on the complexity of the said species.

‘My first 10 discoveries were with my late supervisor, Professor Dr Susan Lim; the next 3 discoveries were with Professor Susan and Dr Tan Wooi Boon, and the most recent discovery was on my own,’ she quipped.

Names of the 14 species Michelle identified recently 

The Future of Taxonomy

Michelle, who has been with UCSI University for the past 3 years, decided to become a taxonomist when she realised that she enjoyed the art of discovering, describing and naming new species.

“I realised that the younger generation is driven by materialistic things and quick-earned glory.

“This kind of work is a dying trade and not many people are doing it mainly because it is extremely tedious. I hope to create more awareness for this kind of skill because believe it or not, all of us have inborn taxonomic abilities.

Michelle mentioned that there were two more species to be published later this year.

“As for the name – it's a secret. Let's just say that the names proposed for these two new guys are extremely long and, in a way, describe their reproductive organs,” she said.

More information about the species discovered by Michelle can be obtained at:

http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=119285

http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=119284