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Saurida fortis, a new species of lizardfish (Aulopiformes: Synodontidae) from the northwestern Pacific Ocean

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Abstract

Saurida fortis sp. nov., a lizardfish (Aulopiformes: Synodontidae) from the northwestern Pacific Ocean, previously misidentified as Saurida umeyoshii Inoue and Nakabo 2006 and/or Saurida wanieso Shindo and Yamada 1972, is morphologically and genetically distinct from both species and described as new. It is characterized by the following combination of characters: dorsal-fin rays 11 or 12; lateral-line scales 53–56; vertebrae 51–54; pre-dorsal-fin scale rows 19–22; scale rows below lateral line 5.5; scale rows below lateral line with melanophores 3–5.5; pectoral fin moderately long, its length 12.5–16.9% of standard length (SL), tip of fin just short of or extending slightly beyond P–D line; pelvic girdle width 8.0–11.1% SL; anterior end of base of anteriormost gill raker on lower gill arch located behind posterior end of basibranchial/hypobranchial junction, with gap between gill raker and junction subequal in length to 1–3 gill-raker bases; body dark brown dorsally, silvery-white ventrally, with a row of poorly defined brownish-black blotches along lateral line and a pair of similar blotches posterior to both dorsal- and adipose-fin bases; scale pockets below lateral line with melanophores (usually absent anterior to pelvic-fin bases, rarely present in adults), melanophore number decreasing ventrally and increasing with growth; single row of indistinct black spots along caudal-fin upper margin.

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Acknowledgments

We are especially grateful to S. Kimura and T. Yodo (FRLM), Y. Hibino (KMNH), H. Senou (KPM), H.-C. Ho and T.-W. Wu (NMMB), G. Shinohara and M. Nakae (NSMT), G. Dally (NTM), K. Miyamoto (OCF), Y. Kimura (Research Institute of Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries, Osaka), and M. Aizawa and M. Fukatani (ZUMT) for opportunities to examine specimens and providing specimen photographs; H. Wada (KPM), T. Matsumoto and K. Mochizuki (KAUM), and T. Ogata (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Tokyo) for their kind assistance for DNA analysis; T. Maekawa (Maekawa Fisheries, Amami), M. Itou (Maruoh, Minami-satsuma), J. Nakamura (Kagoshima City Aquarium) and Y. Haraguchi and other volunteers, graduates, and students of KAUM for collecting specimens and curatorial assistance; and G. Hardy (Ngunguru, New Zealand) for reading the manuscript and providing help with English. This study was supported in part by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 20H03311 and 21H03651; the JSPS Core-to-core CREPSUM JPJSCCB20200009; and the “Establishment of Glocal Research and Education Network in the Amami Islands” project of Kagoshima University adopted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries, Kagoshima University, 1-21-24 Korimoto, Kagoshima, 890-8580, Japan

    Ryusei Furuhashi

  2. Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, GPO Box 4646, Darwin, NT, 0801, Australia

    Barry C. Russell

  3. School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, 0820, Australia

    Barry C. Russell

  4. The Kagoshima University Museum, 1-21-30 Korimoto, Kagoshima, 890-0065, Japan

    Hiroyuki Motomura

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  1. Ryusei Furuhashi
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  2. Barry C. Russell
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  3. Hiroyuki Motomura
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Correspondence to Ryusei Furuhashi.

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Fish species, treated in this study, are not listed as threatened or endangered by the IUCN Red List or CITES. Specimens registered in fish collections of natural history museums were used in this study. New Japanese specimens were collected with permissions from the local fisheries cooperatives.

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Furuhashi, R., Russell, B.C. & Motomura, H. Saurida fortis, a new species of lizardfish (Aulopiformes: Synodontidae) from the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Ichthyol Res 70, 337–352 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-022-00894-x

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