Neodraco, Parker & Near, 2022

Parker, Elyse & Near, Thomas J., 2022, Phylogeny Reconciles Classification in Antarctic Plunderfishes, Ichthyology & Herpetology 110 (4), pp. 662-674 : 665

Neodraco , new genus

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:489B040E-2B31-48C9-A814-C77310289EDB

Type species.— Artedidraco skottsbergi ( Lönnberg, 1905: 48–49; Fig. 1 ).

Definition.— The least inclusive clade that includes Neodraco skottsbergi ( Lönnberg, 1905) and Neodraco loennbergi ( Roule, 1913) . The reference phylogeny is one inferred from the min84 dataset (including DNA sequences of 64,980 ddRAD loci) presented in Figure 2 .

Diagnosis.— First dorsal fin with two to three spines, second dorsal fin with 24 to 28 rays, anal fin with 14 to 17 rays, and pectoral fin with 17 to 21 rays. The upper lateral line has 2 to 9 anterior tubular scales and 1 to 16 posterior disc-shaped scales. Number of vertebrae ranges between 36 and 40. In the caudal skeleton, the parhypural and lower hypural plate are fused with the urostyle ( Eakin, 1981). The depth of the head is similar to the body depth to the caudal peduncle. The diameter of the orbit exceeds the length of the snout. The interorbital width is narrow, ranging 13 to 24 times smaller than the head length. The mental barbel is short, ranging between 3.8 to 11.0 times smaller than the head length. There are 6 to 8 dark patches of pigment at the bases of the two dorsal fins that form saddles when viewed from above ( Eakin, 1990).

Comparisons.— Neodraco is distinguished from species of Artedidraco in having 2 to 9 tubular scales in the upper

lateral line (more than 6 in the latter), with the tubular scale row not extending beyond the first ray of the second dorsal fin (upper lateral line extends well under the dorsal fin in Artedidraco ), 17 or 18 gill rakers on the first gill arch (13 to 16 in Artedidraco ), and two to three spines in the first dorsal fin (three to five in Artedidraco ; Eakin, 1981, 1990; Eakin et al., 2015). Neodraco differs from Dolloidraco longedorsalis in having fewer than 8 tubular scales in the upper lateral line and the first dorsal fin is positioned above the base of the pectoral fin versus 8 to 18 tubular upper lateral-line scales and the placement of the first dorsal fin above the operculum in D. longedorsalis ( Norman, 1938; Eakin, 1990). Neodraco is distinguished from Histiodraco velifer and species of Pogonophryne by the absence of post-temporal ridges ( Norman, 1938; Eakin, 1990).

Etymology.— From the Ancient Greek words me ´oç (neos) meaning new and dqajxm ´(dracon) meaning dragon. The name Neodraco highlights that this is a newly-described lineage of Artedidraconinae identified through the application of molecular phylogenetics ( Derome et al., 2002; Lecointre et al., 2011; Near et al., 2012, 2018).

Figures

FIG. 1. Neodraco skottsbergi from the South Orkney Islands (–61.213304, –45.935358), 7.1 cm standard length. YPM ICH 022463.

FIG. 2. Phylogenetic relationships of Artedidraconinae based on maximum likelihood analyses of concatenated ddRAD datasets using IQ-TREE. Bootstrap support values for nodes less than 100% are shown. (A) Phylogeny resulting from analysis of the dataset that includes 64,980 ddRAD loci. The DNA sequence alignments include data for at least 84 of the 168 sampled specimens (min84). The sectors of the Southern Ocean where specimens were collected are indicated with colored circles at the tips of the phylogeny. (B) Phylogeny resulting from analysis of the dataset that includes 19,042 ddRAD loci. The DNA sequence alignments include data for at least 126 of the 168 sampled specimens (min126). (C) Phylogeny resulting from analysis of the dataset that includes 1,331 ddRAD loci. The DNA sequence alignments include data for at least 144 of the 168 sampled specimens (min144). See Data Accessibility for tree file.