A new deep-sea species of Barathronus Goode & Bean from Brazil, with notes on Barathronus bicolor Goode & Bean (Ophidiiformes: Aphyonidae)

Abstract

A new species of Barathronus (Ophidiiformes: Aphyonidae) is described from a single, mature male specimen (101 mm SL) bottom trawled on the continental slope of Rio Grande do Norte, northeastern Brazil, between 1,964 and 2,045 m depth. The new species is diagnosed among congeners by the following combination of characters: peritoneum transparent, deep-set eyes not visible, eight fangs on vomer, anal fin rays 69, predorsal length 42.0% SL, preanal length 49.5% SL, penis long, slender, and lacking a pair of lobes at its base, and presence of a ventral flexure of the anterior 2-3 vertebrae. Additionally, morphological data of three specimens of Barathronus bicolor collected in Brazilian waters are presented and compared with those from 51 specimens from the western Central Atlantic.Uma nova espécie de Barathronus (Ophidiiformes: Aphyonidae) é descrita a partir de um único exemplar macho (101 mm CP) coletado com arrasto de fundo no talude continental do Rio Grande do Norte, nordeste do Brasil, entre 1.964 e 2.045 m de profundidade. A espécie nova é diagnosticada entre as congêneres pela seguinte combinação de caracteres: peritônio transparente, olhos alojados profundamente e não distinguíveis, oito presas no vômer, nadadeira anal com 69 raios, comprimento pré-dorsal 42,0% CP, comprimento pré-anal 49,5% CP, pênis longo, afilado e sem um par de lobos em sua base, e presença de flexão ventral nas 2-3 vértebras anteriores. Adicionalmente, dados morfológicos dos três espécimes de Barathronus bicolor coletados em águas brasileiras são apresentados e comparados com aqueles de 51 espécimes do Atlântico Central ocidental.

Fish biodiversity and conservation in South America

“…The number of currently active marine fish taxonomists in the continent, however, is markedly lower than the number of freshwater taxonomists, a situation that naturally causes a slower pace of marine fish descriptions. With 7500 km of coastline, Brazil stands out as the most taxonomically active country in the region when marine fishes are considered, with > 40 species described since the turn of the century in groups as taxonomically and ecologically distinct as the Myxinidae (Mincarone, , ), Elasmobranchii (Soares et al ., ), Labrisomidae (Sazima et al ., ), Serranidae (Carvalho‐Filho & Ferreira, ) and Ophidiiformes (Nielsen et al ., ), to name just a few examples (Eschmeyer et al ., ). More than 15 species of marine fishes have also been described from Chilean waters in the last decades, most of them based on specimens collected, as expected, in regions previously insufficiently explored such as deep‐sea habitats and oceanic islands (Meléndez, ).…”

“…Fishing surveys focused on the evaluation of biological parameters of fish stocks along the south‐western Atlantic shelf and slope have led to significant improvements in the knowledge of the diversity and biology of deep‐sea fishes. As result of these and similar initiatives, an impressive number of new distribution records has been provided and several new species were discovered in the past decade, covering a wide range of taxonomic groups, including Myxinidae (Mincarone, ; ), Scyliorhinidae (Soares et al ., ), Rajidae (Carvalho et al ., ), Anguilliformes (Melo, ; Melo et al ., ); Sternoptychidae (Lima et al ., ), Chiasmodontidae (Melo, ), Ophidiiformes (Franco et al ., ; Mincarone et al ., ; Nielsen, ; Nielsen et al ., ; Nielsen et al ., ), Stephanoberyciformes (Mincarone et al ., ), Gadiformes (Melo et al ., ), Ipnopidae (Franco et al ., ), Zoarcidae (Anderson & Mincarone, ; Mincarone & Anderson, ) and Bramidae (Carvalho‐Filho et al ., ).…”

A new species of viviparous brotula genus Pseudogilbia (Ophidiiformes: Dinematichthyidae) from Brazilian reefs, with an updated diagnosis of the genus

“…The diversity of ophidiiforms in Brazilian waters currently comprises 35 genera and c . 50 species distributed in four families, including the new species described herein (Bauer et al ., 2018; Mincarone et al ., 2008; Nielsen et al ., 2009, 2015; Robins et al ., 2012; Lins Oliveira et al ., 2015; Pinheiro et al ., 2018; Tomiyama et al ., 2021).…”

The Scientific Explorations for Deep-Sea Fishes in Brazil: The Known Knowns, the Known Unknowns, and the Unknown Unknowns

“…During the Projeto de Monitoramento Ambiental Marinho da Bacia Potiguar (2009-2011), two expeditions were made onboard of the North American RVs Luke Thomas and Seward Johnson off the Rio Grande do Norte State. The samples were obtained using bottom trawl, from depths between 150 and 2000 m, and resulted in the capture of five species of Elasmobranchii and one Holocephali and 159 species of Actinopteri (Oliveira et al 2015), and was used for the description of Barathronus linsi (Nielsen et al 2015).…”