The fish are ratfish — an ancient relative to sharks — and it’s the Millersville University biology professor’s task to give each a moniker.

Dagit, who calls herself the “ratfish lady,” has written about 15 articles on ratfish for various publications, and she’s attended numerous conferences, where she met people who have discovered new species of the fish or are seeking information about it.

A 1992 graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a doctorate in zoology, she has made a name for herself among other ratfish experts. And those experts frequently come to her for help in deciding if a new species has been discovered.

Oftentimes, Dagit will work with those colleagues to name the newly found species.

Most recently, she was one of several scientists involved in the naming of a new type of ratfish. She chose Hydrolagus mccoskeri after John McCosker, a friend and colleague from California Academy of Sciences who — on his birthday in 1995 — found the species in the Pacific Ocean near the Galapagos Islands. McCosker asked Dagit for her help in the naming process.

To date, Dagit has named five other species of ratfish. She said the process is exciting.

“It’s like immortality,” she said. “Your name is associated with it forever.”

The Hydrolagus mccoskeri species is black and white and about 38 centimeters long. Dagit said about 34 species of ratfish have been discovered, and she estimates there are about 40 to 45 species yet to be found.

“There are not only ratfish but tons of fish laying around waiting to be discovered,” she said.

She and her colleagues began researching the new species two years ago. In October, an anonymous peer-review group published its findings, which determined Dagit and her peers had discovered a new species of ratfish.

“The Hydrolagus mccoskeri wasn’t too hard to identify as a new species,” Dagit said. “It was pretty distinctive. It made it easy.”

But Dagit said the process isn’t always so simple. “Sometimes it’s very hard. That’s why it takes a long time,” she said.

Determining Hydrolagus mccoskeri was a new species of ratfish wasn’t difficult, Dagit said, but going through all the verification steps required a great deal of time.

“We have to take pictures and measurements and compare them to existing species,” Dagit said. “Travel is sometimes required. But now some of it is done on the Internet.”

Dagit joined Millersville University last year and has taught a number of courses, including marine biology, ichthyology and zoology.

Before coming to the university, she was a curator for Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.

But Dagit wasn’t always intrigued by fish.

“I didn’t like them at first. I thought they were hideous,” she said.

Then graduate school changed the course of her life. “I picked a good mentor who was a big fish guy,” Dagit said.

Before her fascination with fish, Dagit was interested in animals, particularly bats. She said she might someday expand the scope of her research.

“I used to know a bat (expert),” Dagit said. “I’d like my students to study the bats in my barn” in Chester County.

But until that happens, Dagit said she is content working on naming more species of ratfish.

“It’s like winning the Boston Marathon,” she said, “but I’m the only entrant.”


Madelyn Pennino’s e-mail address is mpenninolnpnews.com.