Exploring Deep-Sea Biodiversity in the Porcupine Bank (NE Atlantic) through Fish Integrative Taxonomy

This study combined morphological and molecular approaches to the species assignment of several rare or poorly known deep-water fishes caught between 549 and 1371 m depth during a Spanish bottom trawl survey in the Porcupine Bank, west of Ireland. The following fish species were identified: Nessorha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Main Authors: Rafael Bañón, Alejandro de Carlos, Carlos Farias, Nair Vilas-Arrondo, Francisco Baldó
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse9101075
https://doaj.org/article/ae468dc492e346c7a32ad2122b9d4ad9
Description
Summary:This study combined morphological and molecular approaches to the species assignment of several rare or poorly known deep-water fishes caught between 549 and 1371 m depth during a Spanish bottom trawl survey in the Porcupine Bank, west of Ireland. The following fish species were identified: Nessorhamphus ingolfianus (Schmidt, 1912), Borostomias antarcticus (Lönnberg 1905), Scopelosaurus lepidus (Krefft and Maul 1955), Bathypterois dubius Vaillant, 1888, Evermannella balbo (Risso, 1820), Antimora rostrata (Günther, 1878), Melanonus zugmayeri Norman, 1930, Lyconus brachycolus Holt and Byrne, 1906; Paraliparis hystrix Merrett, 1983, Neocyttus helgae (Holt and Byrne, 1908); Platyberyx opalescens Zugmayer, 1911; Howella atlantica Post and Quéro, 1991, Lycodes terraenovae Collett, 1896 and Pseudoscopelus altipinnis Parr, 1933. The presence of L. brachycolus , P. opalescens and P. altipinnis is reported for the first time in the Bank. The DNA barcoding results were largely consistent with morphological identification in 10 species but four did not fit the current taxonomy, indicating cases of potential cryptic speciation, misidentification, synonymy or recent diversification. Among them, the results strongly suggest that P. garmani and P. hystrix are conspecific, making P. hystrix a junior synonym of P. garmani .