Two new miniature silverside fishes of the genus Membras Bonaparte (Atheriniformes, Atherinopsidae) from the Tropical North Atlantic Ocean
- 15 September 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Magnolia Press in Zootaxa
- Vol. 4852 (2), 191-202
- https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4852.2.4
Abstract
Two new species of miniature silverside fishes are described from coastal habitats in the tropical Atlantic: Membras pygmaea sp. nov., from Brus Lagoon, Honduras, and M. procera sp. nov., from the Gulf of Urabá, Colombia. These new species belong to the martinica species-group within the genus Membras Bonaparte. The monophyletic martinica species-group (see below) contains four additional species, all coastal, marine that extend from the east coast of North America to São Paolo State, Brazil. Within the martinica species-group, all but M. martinica are miniature species, ranging from 41–60 mm SL. The smallest species, M. pygmaea sp. nov., is mature at 24 mm SL. A geometric morphometric analysis shows: (i) each species of the martinica species-group occupies its own portion of shape space; and (ii) none of the miniature species possess the shapes of small immature M. martinica. While some of the literature suggests that miniaturization may involve paedomorphosis, our results show that the miniatures accelerate to adult body forms.Keywords
This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- Mode of miniaturisation influences body shape evolution in New World anchovies (Engraulidae)Journal of Fish Biology, 2019
- Multi-locus fossil-calibrated phylogeny of Atheriniformes (Teleostei, Ovalentaria)Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 2015
- Dealing with allometry in linear and geometric morphometrics: a taxonomic case study in the Leporinus cylindriformis group (Characiformes: Anostomidae) with description of a new species from SurinameZoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011
- MorphoJ: an integrated software package for geometric morphometricsMolecular Ecology Resources, 2010