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A new family, genus & species of catfish

By jlynch on October 12, 2006.

i-4f37b101687ce866c039fbab03ceee52-zt01000Fig_2_thumb[1].jpg While I'm at it, here's another new species. In this case, it is a catfish from Mexico, Lacantunia enigmatica, which has a number of distinguishing characteristics. As the abstract to the description [pdf] states:

A new family (Lacantuniidae), genus and species of catfish, Lacantunia enigmatica, is described from the RÃo Usumacinta basin of Chiapas, México. This odd siluriform is diagnosed by five distinctively autapomorphic and anatomically complex structures. ... Lacantunia enigmatica cannot be placed within or as a basal sister lineage to any known catfish family or multifamily clade except Siluroidei. This species may represent an ancient group, perhaps of early Tertiary age or older, and it adds another biogeographic puzzle to the historically complex Mesoamerican biota.

Full source: RODILES-HERNÃNDEZ et al. (2005) "Lacantunia enigmatica (Teleostei: Siluriformes) a new and phylogenetically puzzling freshwater fish from Mesoamerica" Zootaxa 1000: 1-24 (27 May 2005) [pdf]

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