Bathygadus melanobranchus Vaillant 1888
Creators: name: Bañón, Rafael
name: Arronte, Juan Carlos
name: Barros-García, David
name: Vázquez-Dorado, Sandra
name: Carlos, Alejandro De
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Actinopterygii
Gadiformes
Macrouridae
Bathygadus
Bathygadus melanobranchus

description: Bathygadus melanobranchus Vaillant, 1888
Fig. 5.
Bathygadus melanobranchus Vaillant, 1888: 206, Pl. 18 (Figs. 1-1 e). Morocco coast, 32°31'N, 9°48'W, station 33, depth 1,350 meters. Lectotype: MNHN 1886-0112. Farran, 1924: 120–121 (description); Parr, 1946: 8–17 (description, key); Iwamoto, 1970: 327–352 (description, key); Marshall & Iwamoto, 1973: 518–530 (description, key); Howes & Crimmen 1990: 192– 201 (description, key).
Material examined. MHNUSC 25007- 1, 370 mm TL, 23th August 2010, Galicia Bank; 42º32.846'N — 11º59.027'W; 1,185–1,187 m depth.
Description. Body elongated and attenuated to the caudal peduncle; head large, 6 times in total length; snout blunt, 4.1 times into head; mouth large and terminal, jaws do not reaching the posterior margin of the orbit; snout as long as eye diameter and 4.1 times into head length; chin barbel absent; only first ventral ray slightly produced, 0.8 in the head length. The main morphometric and meristic characteristics are presented in Table 6.
Habitat and distribution. Benthopelagic in tropical and subtropical Atlantic at depths between 450 and 2,650 m, but generally from 700 to 1,400 m (Marshall & Iwamoto, 1973). Amphi-Atlantic distribution; in western Atlantic from the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean sea and off Suriname and in eastern Atlantic from the Irish continental slope, Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, Morocco, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Gabon (Farran, 1924; Marshall & Iwamoto, 1973; Sobrino et al. 2012). The records from South Africa were not included because they cannot be verified (Howes & Crimmen, 1990).
Key to species of Bathygadidae from the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean waters (adapted from Iwamoto, 2003)
1a. Chin barbel very small or absent; no elongated fin rays in dorsal and pectoral fins and only slightly elongated in the ventral fin.
................................................................................. Genus Bathygadus ...(2) 1b. Chin barbel long, well developed; elongated fin rays in dorsal, pectoral and ventral fins............. Genus Gadomus ...(4) 2a. Very small barbel present on chin; body integument relatively tough, not readily torn; head bones strong; gill filaments pale.
.................................................................................... Bathygadus macrops 2b. No barbel on chin; body integument weak, easily torn; head bones weak, easily broken; gill filaments dusky or pale....... 3 3a. Pelvic-fin rays 8; gill filaments dusky; interorbital width moderate, 4 or more times into head length.....................
.............................................................................. Bathygadus melanobranchus 3b. Pelvic-fin rays 9; gill filaments pale; interorbital wide, 2.5–3.0 into head length..................... Bathygadus favosus 4a. Two elongated rays in pelvic fin; pectoral-fin soft rays 20 to 28................................... Gadomus arcuatus 4b. One elongated ray in pelvic fin; pectoral-fin soft rays 14 to 21.................................................. 5 5a. Gill rakers on lower limb of first arch 26 to 31; interorbital length 21–28% head length; pectoral-fin soft rays 14 to 18; orbit
17.1–28.0% head length; 9–13 pyloric caeca in adult specimens.................................. Gadomus longifilis 5b. Gill rakers on lower limb of first arch 19 to 21; interorbital length 15.2–20.5% head length; pectoral-fin soft rays 17 to 21; orbit
24.6–31.6% head length; more than 50 pyloric caeca in adult specimens............................. Gadomus dispar
description: Published as part of Bañón, Rafael, Arronte, Juan Carlos, Barros-García, David, Vázquez-Dorado, Sandra & Carlos, Alejandro De, 2013, Taxonomic study of Bathygadidae fishes (Gadiformes) from Atlantic Spanish waters combining morphological and molecular approaches, pp. 552-566 in Zootaxa 3746 (4) on pages 561-562, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3746.4.3, http://zenodo.org/record/222237