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A new species of carp gudgeon, 'Hypseleotris' (Pisces: Gobioidei: Eleotridae), from the Katherine River system, Northern Territory

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  • Museum of Tropical Queensland, Townsville
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... For the northwest Australian Hypseleotris endemics, Shipway (1950) first described H. aurea from the Pilbara region, Hoese & Allen (1983) then described H. ejuncida, H. kimberleyensis and H. regalis from the Kimberley region, and Larson (2007) described H. barrawayi from the Arnhem Plateau. Further to this, Hoese & Allen (1987) described a morphologically similar genus endemic to the Kimberley, Kimberleyeleotris, containing two species K. hutchinsi and K. notata. ...
... Counts and measurements presented include those of Hoese & Allen (1983), Hoese & Allen (1987), and Larson (2007). To help eliminate operator bias, counts and measurements were calibrated by re-examining the paratypes of described species (see Additional material section). ...
... 3). These species are formally described below, but for clarity, we use the new scientific names throughout the rest of the paper and in all Larson (2007) and Hoese and Allen (1983). ...
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Species within the northwest Australian clade of Hypseleotris (six species) and the genus Kimberleyeleotris (two species) are reviewed following the recording of new populations in the region and a molecular study of the group that identified three undescribed candidate species. Based on the analysis of extensive morphological and nuclear and mitochondrial molecular datasets, Kimberleyeleotris is here formally synonymised with Hypseleotris. Furthermore, three species from the Kimberley region, Western Australia, are described to science: Hypseleotris maranda sp. nov., Hypseleotris wunduwala sp. nov., and Hypseleotris garawudjirri sp. nov. The presence of, or number of scales across the head and body, the pattern of sensory papillae on the head, fin ray counts, dorsal and anal fin colouration (particularly in breeding males), and body depth, can be used to distinguish the members of the northwest Australia lineage. Furthermore, the newly described species were genetically separated from all northwest Australian congeners by K2P distances ranging from 7.8–11.3% based on the CO1 gene, and 7.7–16.3 % based on the entire mitochondrial genome. Two of the new species, H. maranda sp. nov. and H. wunduwala sp. nov., have extremely narrow ranges being found in single sub-catchments of the Roe and King Edward Rivers respectively. On the other hand, H. garawudjirri sp. nov. is moderately widespread, being found across the Charnley, Calder, and Sale rivers. While the conservation risk to H. maranda sp. nov. and H. wunduwala sp. nov. is inherently high due to their small range, there are currently no obvious local threatening processes to either of these species given their remote locations that are little impacted by human activities.
... Kimberleyeleotris is morphologically similar to Hypseleotris found in the Kimberley region, and was described as differing from them in having fewer scales, teeth on the vomer, and slight differences in head papillae pattern and mouth shape [15,16]. Hypseleotris barrawayi occurs in the adjacent Arnhem Plateau, Northern Territory, restricted to the upper Daly River system [17]. Kimberleyeleotris and the six Kimberley Hypseleotris are collectively slender bodied, with H. aurea and H. barrawayi slightly deeper (intermediate) bodied. ...
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Background Carp gudgeons (genus Hypseleotris ) are a prominent part of the Australian freshwater fish fauna, with species distributed around the western, northern, and eastern reaches of the continent. We infer a calibrated phylogeny of the genus based on nuclear ultraconserved element (UCE) sequences and using Bayesian estimation of divergence times, and use this phylogeny to investigate geographic patterns of diversification with GeoSSE. The southeastern species have hybridized to form hemiclonal lineages, and we also resolve relationships of hemiclones and compare their phylogenetic placement in the UCE phylogeny with a hypothesis based on complete mitochondrial genomes. We then use phased SNPs extracted from the UCE sequences for population structure analysis among the southeastern species and hemiclones. Results Hypseleotris cyprinoides , a widespread euryhaline species known from throughout the Indo-Pacific, is resolved outside the remainder of the species. Two Australian radiations comprise the bulk of Hypseleotris , one primarily in the northwestern coastal rivers and a second inhabiting the southeastern region including the Murray–Darling, Bulloo-Bancannia and Lake Eyre basins, plus coastal rivers east of the Great Dividing Range. Our phylogenetic results reveal cytonuclear discordance between the UCE and mitochondrial hypotheses, place hemiclone hybrids among their parental taxa, and indicate that the genus Kimberleyeleotris is nested within the northwestern Hypseleotris radiation along with three undescribed species. We infer a crown age for Hypseleotris of 17.3 Ma, date the radiation of Australian species at roughly 10.1 Ma, and recover the crown ages of the northwestern (excluding H. compressa ) and southeastern radiations at 5.9 and 7.2 Ma, respectively. Range-dependent diversification analyses using GeoSSE indicate that speciation and extinction rates have been steady between the northwestern and southeastern Australian radiations and between smaller radiations of species in the Kimberley region and the Arnhem Plateau. Analysis of phased SNPs confirms inheritance patterns and reveals high levels of heterozygosity among the hemiclones. Conclusions The northwestern species have restricted ranges and likely speciated in allopatry, while the southeastern species are known from much larger areas, consistent with peripatric speciation or allopatric speciation followed by secondary contact. Species in the northwestern Kimberley region differ in shape from those in the southeast, with the Kimberley species notably more elongate and slender than the stocky southeastern species, likely due to the different topographies and flow regimes of the rivers they inhabit.
... data). Its presence at this location was mentioned in the description of this species (Larson 2007). Incidence-1 basin, 17 locations. ...
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Northern Australia is biologically diverse and of national and global conservation signicance. Its ancient landscape contains the world’s largest area of savannah ecosystem in good ecological condition and its rivers are largely free-flowing. Agriculture, previously confined largely to open range-land grazing, is set to expand in extent and to focus much more on irrigated cropping and horticulture. Demands on the water resources of the region are thus, inevitably increasing. Reliable information is required to guide and inform development and help plan for a sustainable future for the region which includes healthy rivers that contain diverse fish assemblages. Based on a range of information sources, including the outcomes of recent and extensive new field surveys, this study maps the distribution of the 111 freshwater fishes (excluding elasmobranches) and 42 estuarine vagrants recorded from freshwater habitats of the region. We classify the habitat use and migratory biology of each species. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of the diversity and distribution of fishes of the region within a standardised nomenclatural framework. In addition, we summarise the outcomes of recent phylogeographic and phylogenetic research using molecular technologies to identify where issues of taxonomy may need further scrutiny. The study provides an informed basis for further research on the spatial arrangement of biodiversity and its relationship to environmental factors (e.g. hydrology), conservation planning and phylogentic variation within individual taxa.
... In Australia, the term 'carp gudgeon' is widely used in reference to small freshwater fishes of the genus Hypseleotris Gill, 1863 (Eleotridae). Approximately twelve endemic Australian Hypseleotris species are recognised although several are not formally described and the taxonomy of the group is presently unresolved (Thacker and Unmack 2005;Larson 2007). This situation is particularly apparent in south-eastern Australia where three undescribed taxa are recognised, each being widespread, common and sympatric in the MDB (Unmack 2000;Allen et al. 2002;Thacker et al. 2007). ...
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Australian carp gudgeons (Hypseleotris spp.) of the Murray–Darling basin are a species complex including sexually reproducing taxa and unisexual hybrid lineages that reproduce via hybridogenesis. Unisexual fish require gametes of a sexual species to propagate themselves and can be regarded as ‘sexual parasites’ capable of driving closed populations to extinction. Metapopulation dynamics have been proposed as a mechanism that could facilitate coexistence between a sexual parasite and its ‘host’. This study evaluates whether patterns of spatial genetic variation are compatible with metapopulation dynamics for a sexually reproducing member of the carp gudgeon complex (Hypseleotris sp. HA), in the Granite Creeks system of central Victoria. Genetic differentiation of fish among all study sites was accommodated by a model of migration-drift equilibrium using decomposed pairwise regression analysis. Given that the population was divided into discrete patches in the form of refugial waterholes during the time of this study, we infer that spatially constrained source–sink metapopulation dynamics may be responsible for producing this pattern. It is therefore possible that metapopulation dynamics contribute to coexistence in the Granite Creeks carp gudgeon hybridogenetic system, and further analysis is required to determine the relative importance of environmental versus demographic factors towards patch extinction.
Article
The taxonomy of Hypseleotris fish species from the Indo-Pacific (Australian endemics not included) is revised, using combined molecular and morphological approaches. Seven species are recognized, including description of one new species (Hypseleotris ebneri sp. nov.) and re-elevation of four previous synonyms (Hypseleotris alexis, Hypseleotris everetti, Hypseleotris guentheri and Hypseleotris moncktoni). Two other species retained are Hypseleotris compressa and Hypseleotris cyprinoides. The species differ by divergence in mitochondrial genes (complete ND2 and COI) and by characters including the number of pectoral fin rays, scales in lateral, transverse forward and pre-dorsal series, body depth and head length. The number of Hypseleotris species is greater than previously thought and there are serious conservation issues for several species that have limited distributions. As four different species were found in Papua New Guinea, it is important to study all the specimens collected in this country, and we recommend additional field and genetic sampling, because it is likely that other Hypseleotris species with narrow distribution ranges also exist there.
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There are 1474 fish species now known from the Northern Territory, in 195 families, with a number of these species still undescribed. The 1474 species include 120 new records for the NT and three for Australia, while nine non-native species exist as small feral populations. The most speciose family is the Gobiidae (gobies), with 150 recognised species, and is the main fish group inhabiting coral reef and mangrove areas. The fish fauna of the Northern Territory occupies several biogeographical regions, which include the internal river drainages of Australia and the Sahul Shelf adjoining New Guinea and Indonesia. The Northern Territory’s fish fauna most closely resembles that of north-western Western Australia, and many species are shared with this region. Among the Northern Territory’s fish fauna are 55 species considered to be threatened under various listings (ASFB, EPBC), with the poor state of knowledge of the NT’s fish populations and their true distributions hindering assessment. Many sampling gaps remain and the basic biology of most species is unknown.
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