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Relationships Of The New World Cichlid Genus Hypsophrys Agassiz 1859 (Teleostei: Cichlidae), With Diagnoses For The Genus And Its Species

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Two monotypic Neotropical cichlid genera, Hypsophrys Agassiz 1859 and Neetroplus Günther 1867, are well known but poorly diagnosed. The possession of a single supraneural (versus two for most Middle American species), a strongly rounded snout with a small and slightly subterminal mouth (versus straight snout profiles with terminal mouth) provide morphological support for the sister-group relationship of Hypsophrys and Neetroplus recovered in recent molecular phylogenetic analyses. Based on these shared features Neetroplus is synonymized with Hypsophrys. In addition, the senior synonym Hypsophrys unimaculatus should no longer be improperly suppressed in favor of the more familiar, but junior, H. nicaraguensis.
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... A close relationship of Neetroplus nematopus and Hypsophrys nicaraguensis as sister taxa has been recurrently obtained in phylogenetic studies (Hulsey et al, 2004, Ř íčan et al, 2008:948, López-Fernández et al, 2010:7, Ř íčan et al, 2016. It has even been proposed (Chakrabarty et al, 2007, Schmitter-Soto, 2007 that Neetroplus nematopus should be part of Hypsophrys. Hypsophrys nicaraguensis nevertheless does not comply with the diagnosis of Neetroplus as originally presented and as extended by Ř íčan et al. (2016:66), who maintain the separation of the genera. ...
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... Sufficient morphological differences (dentition, markings, orientation of the lower jaw) exist to diagnose a new genus for these two species. Cincelichthys bocourti was initially described as a member Neetroplus; however, this genus is a synonym of Hypsophrys, as the type species for Neetroplus is H. nematopus (Chakrabarty and Sparks 2007). Therefore, Neetroplus cannot be used for these species. ...
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