Myroconger

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Myroconger
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Anguilliformes
Suborder: Muraenoidei
Family: Myrocongridae
T. N. Gill, 1890
Genus: Myroconger
Günther, 1870
Species

6, see text.

Myroconger is the only genus of eels, the thin eels, in the family Myrocongridae. Very little is known about the group. [1]

Until recently, only a single specimen from this family was known. This individual had been caught off Saint Helena in 1868. In the 1990s and 2000s, deep-sea submersibles identified several more individuals, including four further species. [2] The first known species, M. compressus, was bright red in colour, but not all other species share this trait.

Species

The currently recognized species in this genus are: [3] [4]

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References

  1. Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2011). "Myrocongridae" in FishBase . June 2011 version.
  2. McClosker, John F. (1998). Paxton, J.R.; Eschmeyer, W.N. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Fishes. San Diego: Academic Press. p. 89. ISBN   0-12-547665-5.
  3. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2012). Species of Myroconger in FishBase . December 2012 version.
  4. Espíndola, Vinicius C.; Caires, Rodrigo A.; Tighe, Kenneth A.; Pinna, Mario C. C. De; Melo, Marcelo R. S. De (2021-04-29). "A new species of the rare genus Myroconger Günther, 1870 (Anguilliformes: Myrocongridae) from Brazilian waters, tropical western Atlantic". Zootaxa. 4965 (3): 529–540. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4965.3.7. ISSN   1175-5334.