Scientists Discover Bizarre Hairy Fish That Looks Exactly Like Snuffleupagus

A newly discovered, highly camouflaged marine predator bears an uncanny resemblance to a beloved Muppet.

For over two decades, a strange little marine creature puzzled biologist David Harasti. While diving off Papua New Guinea in the early 2000s, he noticed what looked like a scrap of drifting red algae. Then, the algae moved.

What Harasti had actually discovered was a bizarre new species of ghost pipefish so thoroughly covered in reddish-orange fuzz that it resembled a miniature underwater Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street. Now, scientists have formally identified the animal as a previously unknown species named Solenostomus snuffleupagus.

The finding also contradicts long-standing assumptions about the biology of ghost pipefish. Using high-resolution micro-CT scans, researchers found that the species possesses a unique skeletal structure — and the remains of an entire fish in its stomach. Scientists previously believed ghost pipefishes fed exclusively on tiny crustaceans.

A 20-Year Game of Hide and Seek

Marine biologist David Harasti first encountered the fish in 2001.

“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 recounted in a statement. “You don’t often get a moment like that in your career, where you realise you could be looking at a species no one has ever documented before.”

The tiny animal, measuring around 2 to 3.5 centimeters (0.7 to 1.3 inches) long, disappeared back into the reef. Despite Harasti returning to the region on multiple dive trips, the living tuft of fuzz remained a ghost for 19 years. Meanwhile, occasional diver sightings emerged from the Great Barrier Reef, Fiji, and Tonga, hinting that the species might be widespread across the Coral Triangle and southwest Pacific.

Everything changed in 2020 after divers reported another sighting near Cairns, Australia. Harasti teamed up with ichthyologist Graham Short of the California Academy of Sciences and the Australian Museum to launch a targeted expedition.

The researchers searched reef walls and coral outcrops between 5 and 30 meters deep, carefully scanning dense patches of red seaweed. Eventually, they collected both a male and female specimen for formal analysis.

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A Master of Disguise

When Short and his colleagues began mapping the creature’s anatomy using high-resolution micro-CT scanners, they realized just how distinct it was. While on the surface it resembles another species known as Solenostomus paegnius, the new fish possessed 36 vertebrae, compared to the 32 to 34 found in this relative By analyzing its mitochondrial DNA, the team calculated that S. snuffleupagus split from its nearest cousin roughly 18.3 million years ago. Over those eons, it perfected its disguise.

“This species had been doing exactly that, hiding in plain sight, for over two decades,” Short told The Straits Times. “[Its] elaborate hair-like filaments almost certainly function as camouflage among algae and reef growth.”

Unlike many familiar fishes, ghost pipefishes are armored in bony plates beneath the skin. In S. snuffleupagus, these plates erupt with wild, elongated filaments. Most individuals exhibit a deep reddish-orange hue to perfectly match the environment they inhabit, though divers have documented a rare green variant.

“It’s so hairy compared to other species,” Short explained to Scientific American. “Other species can be a little bit hairy in certain spots, like under the snout. But this one took the hairy form all the way. I mean, it looks ridiculous.”

The Shaggy Predator

The biggest surprise came from the stomach contents of one scanned specimen. Researchers discovered the partially digested skeleton of an entire small fish — the first confirmed case of a ghost pipefish preying on another fish.

“For such a cute little thing, it’s actually a predator,” Short added.

Like their seahorse relatives, ghost pipefishes also have unusual reproductive behavior. Females carry the eggs in a specialized brood pouch formed by fused pelvic fins, while females of the new species are noticeably larger than males and possess slightly different cranial crests.

When it came time to christen the new species, the scientists could not ignore the obvious. The fuzzy texture and sloping, trunk-like snout mirrored a beloved, lumbering character from Sesame Street.

“It was so easy to say, ‘Yeah, this looks like Snuffleupagus.’ I mean, it’s almost identical. It’s scary,” Short remarked. “We may have had a few drinks and decided to e-mail Sesame Street Australia. And they answered the following day!”

The team behind the iconic children’s show fully endorsed the tribute. Rosemarie Truglio, Sesame Workshop’s senior vice-president of global education, released a statement celebrating the crossover between pop culture and marine biology.

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“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,” Truglio said in a statement. “And of course, Snuffy is honored to have a brand-new species named after him and hopes to one day visit Australia to meet his new namesake!”

The paper describing the animal was published in the Journal of Fish Biology.