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Review of the Australian hagfishes with description of two new species of Eptatretus (Myxinidae)
Author(s) -
Mincarone M. M.,
Fernholm B.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of fish biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1095-8649
pISSN - 0022-1112
DOI - 10.1111/j.1095-8649.2010.02661.x
Subject(s) - biology , anatomy , cusp (singularity) , geometry , mathematics
This paper revises and updates taxonomic and distributional information about hagfishes (Myxinidae) from Australia. It covers five species of the genus Eptatretus : Eptatretus cirrhatus known from eastern Australia and also distributed around New Zealand, Eptatretus longipinnis endemic to South Australia, Eptatretus strahani originally described from the Philippines and reported here as a new record from Western Australia and two new species described herein as Eptatretus alastairi and Eptatretus gomoni , both from Western Australia. Eptatretus alastairi is distinguished from all congeners by the unique combination of the following characters: six pairs of gill pouches; three‐cusp multicusps on the anterior and posterior rows of cusps; anterior unicusps 9–12; posterior unicusps 8–11; total cusps 48–56; prebranchial pores 13–16; branchial pores 5–6; trunk pores 50–55; tail pores 11–13; total pores 83–88; two bilaterally symmetrical nasal‐sinus papillae in the dorsal surface of the nasal sinus. Eptatretus gomoni is distinguished from all congeners by the unique combination of the following characters: eight pairs of gill pouches; three‐cusp multicusps on the anterior and two‐cusp multicusps on the posterior row of cusps; anterior unicusps 10–11; posterior unicusps 9–10; total cusps 50; prebranchial pores 12–13; branchial pores 7–8; trunk pores 57–58; tail pores 14–15; total pores 91–93; no nasal‐sinus papillae. An identification key for the Australian species of Eptatretus is also provided.