DOI: 10.5061/dryad.hx3ffbgnn
title: Fish species inventory of Yasuní National Park, Ecuador

description: Despite limited access and rather deficient sampling in many lowland areas
 of eastern Ecuador, scientists have been able to demonstrate that this
 specific region of Amazonia houses extraordinarily high concentrations of
 species within several taxa – terrestrial and aquatic, plant and animal,
 vertebrate and invertebrate. In this work, we developed an updated list of
 the ichthyofauna of the Yasuní National Park (YNP) based on an extensive
 literature review and databases of the most representative ichthyological
 collections from Ecuador. Our results yielded 457 species of freshwater
 fishes distributed in 45 families and 13 orders. This number substantially
 exceeded previous fish lists from YNP and accounts for a considerable
 proportion of species inhabiting the Napo River basin as well as the
 entire Amazon River basin. The occurrence of far more species within this
 limited geographic space than have been previously reported, the services
 these species provide to humans, and the absence of alien species,
 thoroughly justifies the greater efforts and investment that should be
 allocated to the protection and management of western Amazonian lands and
 waters.
description: To compile a list of fish species occurring in the YNP, an
 updated database of species present in YNP was developed from previous
 lists of fish species known from the Napo Basin of Ecuador and Peru
 (Barriga 2012, Sanchez et al. 2013, Jézéquel et al.
 2020). Later, this database was curated based on records
 occurring within and around the boundaries of YNP. All fish records, old
 and new, were validated by databases of the two major ichthyological
 collections in Ecuadorian museums: Museo de Historia Natural Gustavo Orcés
 – Escuela Politécnica Nacional (MEPN) and Colección Ictiológica del
 Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, Quito, Ecuador (MECN-DP). These
 records are the product of decades of expeditions to the Ecuadorian Amazon
 and curatorial activities of each museum. In addition, digital databases
 of fishes collections from the Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH) and
 National Museum of Natural Hitory (USNM), have been verified for records
 of several species absent in MEPN or MECN-DP. Because it is possible that
 fish species registered outside YNP boundaries occur within the reserve,
 for this study we included records from a 15 km range beyond YNP limits.
 We did not include records from other protected areas nearby or more
 geographically distant sites despite any ecological similarities. Finally,
 species classification and ordering was also updated to current taxonomic
 revisions of each group according to Eschmeyer’s Catalog of Fishes –
 California Academy of Sciences.
description: # Fish species inventory of Yasuní National Park, Ecuador
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hx3ffbgnn](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hx3ffbgnn) **Description of the data and file structure** The supplementary materials are divided into two files, resulting from a study on fish diversity. The **first** file, titled **Checklist_Taxon_Template**, is a large dataset containing a list of fish species present in Yasuní National Park (YNP). This file follows the format required by the journal **Biodiversity Data Journal**, where each row represents a species, and columns contain qualifiers (e.g., occurrence IDs from Ecuadorian collections, locality, coordinates, collection date, collectors, and more) needed for data validation and table formatting. It is important to note that for each species, the **voucher number** is indicated in the "catalogNumber" column, while the **museum code** where the voucher is stored is specified in the "collectionCode" column, located toward the right end of the file. Definitions for each column are provided as comments in the first row, alongside the column titles. The first file contains two sheets: **Taxa** and **Materials.** Taxa contains information regarding species taxonomy status, species distributions, and citations of references in the manuscript where the respective species has been mentioned. Materials contains museological information of the specimens. "N/A" denotes whenever data from the species was not applicable for the respective qualifier (column); N/As did not interfere with uploading the data to produce a checklist on the journal's platform. Empty cells in this document indicate unavailable or inapplicable information; these gaps did not interfere with uploading the data to produce a checklist on the journal's platform. ### Taxa Qualifiers *Taxon Local ID:* Species unique number *Kingdom:* Major taxonomic rank *Phylum:* Taxonomic rank below Kingdom and above subphylum *Subphylum:* Taxonomic rank below phylum and above class *Class:* Rank below phylum (or subphylum, if present) and above order *Order:* Rank below class and above family *Family:* Rank below order and above genus *Genus:* Rank in biological classification that is below family and above species *Species:* The most specific rank in biological classification *Authorship:* The scientist(s) who first validly published the name of the species. This is typically accompanied by the year of publication. *Distribution:* River basins or regions within Amazonia or the Ecuadorian Amazon where the species is known to inhabit or has been collected.  *Notes:* Citations of references in the manuscript indicating when the respective species has been mentioned or studied in Yasuní National Park or its surroundings. ### Materials Qualifiers *Taxon Local ID:* Species unique number, this number is identical for each species between the sheets Taxa and Materials.  *typeStatus:* Nomenclatural type applied to the subject, if it is not a type material, it should be mentioned is "other material" *occurrenceID:* an identifier of the occurrence *catalogNumber:* an identifier for the record within the museum collection (voucher number) *recordedBy:* a list of people responsible for recording the original occurrence *taxonID:* an identifier for the set of taxon *scientificName:* scientific name of the species *Kingdom:* Major taxonomic rank *Phylum:* Taxonomic rank below Kingdom and above class *Class:* Rank below phylum (or subphylum, if present) and above order *Order:* Rank below class and above family *Family:* Rank below order and above genus *Genus:* Rank in biological classification that is below family and above species *specificEpithet:* The name of the species epithet of the "scientificName" *taxonRank:* The taxonomic rank of the most specific name in the scientificName *continent:* continent where the species was sampled *country:* country where the species was sampled *stateProvince:* The name of the next smaller administrative region than country where the species was collected *county:* The name of the next smaller administrative region than province where the species was collected *municipality:* The name of the next smaller administrative region than county where the species was collected *locality:* specific description of the place where the species was collected *verbatimLocality:* the original textual description of the place where the species was collected *elevation:* description of the elevation (usually above the sea level) *verbatimCoordinates:* description of the original spatial coordinates of the location *verbatimLongitude:* longitude of the location *verbatimLatitude:*  latitude of the location *verbatimSRS:* the spatial reference system (SRS) upon which coordinates given in latitude and longitude are based *identificationQualifier:* A controlled value to express the determiner´s doubts about the identification *samplingProtocol:* the name of the methods used during a sampling event *eventDate:* The date-time during which an Event occurred *year:* the four-digit year in which the event occurred *month:* the integer month in which the event occurred *day:* the integer day of the month in which the event occurred *fieldNumber:* an identifier given to the event in the field. Often serves as a link between field notes and the event  *rightsHolder:* a person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource *accessRights:* information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status *collectionID:* an identifier for the collection or dataset from which the record was derived *institutionCode:* the name (or acronym) in use by the institution custody of the object(s) or information referred to in the record *collectionCode:* the name acronym, coden, or initialism identifying the collection or data set from which the record was derived *ownerInstitutionCode:* the name (or acronym) in use by the institution having ownership of the object(s) or information referred to in the record *basisOfRecord:* the specific nature of the data record The **second** file, titled *Supplementary tables*, contains tables derived from the first file (mentioned above) and the manuscript. These tables include fish family richness in YNP (Table S1), a list of exploited species (Table S2), and vulnerable species present in YNP (Table S3). Although these tables are cited in the manuscript, they were uploaded to Dryad due to character limitations in the journal. Readers can refer to Dryad for detailed inspection of the tables. Overall, the files are organized in tables and saved in Excel format. Each table includes headers that provide all the necessary information for understanding the data.