A New Deep-water Snailfish, Paraliparis anomalus (Teleostei: Liparidae) from the Western North Pacific off Honshu, Japan

Abstract

A new deep-water snailfish, Paraliparis anomalus, is described from two specimens collected off eastern Honshu Island, Japan (635–687 m depth). It can be distinguished from congeners by the following combination of characters: vertebrae 67 (9 + 58), a single pair of pleural ribs on abdominal vertebra; dorsal-fin rays 61 or 62; anal-fin rays 56; pectoral-fin rays 27; caudal-fin rays 9 (1 + 4/4); teeth on both jaws primarily trilobed; orbit 23%–26% of head length; cephalic pore pattern 2-6-7-2; gill slit extending ventrally to third pectoral-fin ray base; pyloric caeca ≤ 9; body pink when fresh, pale after preservation. The relatively large sequence divergence in cytochrome c oxidase subunit I between P. anomalus and other morphologically similar species also supported the validity of the former.