Four species of arapaima were recognized in the mid-1800s, but in 1868, Albert Günther, a scientist at the British Museum of Natural History, published an opinion that those were all one species, ...

Then, in 1868, Albert Günther, a scientist at the British Museum of Natural History, published an opinion piece that lumped all arapaima into one species: Arapaima gigas.

As remarked by Dr. Albert Günther, in his article on the history of the Remora (“On the History of the Echeneis,” Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1860, ser. 3, vol v., p. 386), “there is scarcely a ...