The Atlantic cod may be five separate species rather than one

Atlantic cod are literally 5 separate species of fish, not one, researchers have claimed after conducting a genetic evaluation – although not everybody agrees with their findings.

“What we thought was a single species is actually more species,” says Einar Arnason on the University of Iceland. “It’s important in terms of biodiversity.”

Arnason and his colleagues have sequenced the genomes of almost 1700 Atlantic cod, presently considered a single …