A tiny fish with "Dracula-like teeth" has been discovered in a stream in northern Burma.

The Danionella dracula are 17mm (0.6ins) long and part of the Cypriniform group of carp-like fishes.

The fish was found in April 2007, but has now been officially described as a new species.

Dr Ralf Britz, a zoologist at the Natural History Museum, in London, described the transparent creature as "extraordinary".

"This fish is one of the most extraordinary vertebrates discovered in the last few decades," he said.

"The teeth that Danionella dracula has are very surprising because none of the other 3,700 species in the Cypriniform group have any teeth in their jaws.

"In fact, they lost their jaw teeth about 50 million years ago in the Upper Eocene Period.

"Danionella dracula, however, evolved its own Dracula-like teeth structures by growing them from the jaw bones rather than re-evolving jaw teeth."

Although tiny, the museum said the Danionella dracula was not the world's smallest fish - that title belongs to the 7.9mm (0.3in) Paedocypris progenetica, which is also part of the Cypriniform group.

The find is published in the latest issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B, an international biological research journal.