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Issue: Vol. 5601 No. 2: 7 Mar. 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-03-07
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5601.2.7
Page range: 335-345
Abstract views: 402
PDF downloaded: 16

Garra cavernicola, a new species from the Hajar Mountains in Oman (Teleostei: Cyprinidae), with a short discussion on monophyly and the description of evolutionarily young species

Museum für Naturkunde; Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science; 10115 Berlin; Germany
Pisces Freshwater fish subterranean biodiversity evolution species concepts Western Asia

Abstract

Garra cavernicola, new species, is described from the Hajar Mountains in Oman. It is very closely related to the sympatric, but not syntopic, G. longipinnis, from which it is distinguished by the absence of an external eye, reduced squamation, and a whitish, or pink-coloured body. Garra cavernicola was identified as a “cave form” of G. longipinnis, but is now recognised as a separate species following the ‘Evolutionary Species Concept’, with an evolutionary trajectory distinct from those of G. longipinnis. As G. cavernicola is nested within the G. longipinnis clade, this species is now considered a paraphyletic ancestral species.

 

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