Reassessment of multiple species of Gymnelus (Teleostei: Zoarcidae) in Pacific Arctic and boreal regions

• Main Authors: Catherine W. Mecklenburg, M. Eric Anderson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Key words; Zoarcidae; Gymnelus; eelpouts; Gymnelus hemifasciatus; Gymnelus viridis; Arctic; boreal Pacific; DNA barcoding; Pacific; Reinhardt; Pacific Arctic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.696.5408; http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2015/f/z03948p278f.pdf

Recently described new nominal species and resurrected species in the eelpout genus Gymnelus Reinhardt 1834 were re-assessed for validity using fresh material collected in Pacific Arctic regions and a large body of data from a previous sys-tematic review of the genus. The analysis reported here included both DNA barcodes and morphology. Only two species were validated: G. viridis (Fabricius 1780) and G. hemifasciatus Andriashev 1937. The latter species occurred as two mor-photypes for which there is some evidence of difference in ecological preference, but the available environmental data are not robust enough to firmly identify or verify ecophenotypes.