1. Publication Highlights

Publication Highlights

OS Specimens support revision of Distichodus notospilus in Central Africa
Schmidt et al. (2021) compared our recently collected specimens of Distichodus notospilus from Gabon’s Ogowe Drainage with material from elsewhere in central Africa and discovered that specimens from the Mbini and Mbia Rivers of Equatorial Guinea represent new species, which they described therein.  Oregon State University provided specimens and DNA samples from near the collection site of the first specimens of Distichodus notospilus known to science. Thus, our specimens supplied a crucial point of comparison needed to prove the distinctiveness of the newly described forms from the originally known species.

  • Schmidt R.C, Knobloch E.C and Barrientos, C. (2021). Cast netting new species: Integrative taxonomy of Distichodus notospilus (Characiformes: Distichodontidae) discovers new species and overlooked areas of endemism in Central Africa. Zootaxa. 4952(2), 291-313. https://www.mapress.com/j/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4952.2.5
Newly discovered minnow species from Gabon threatened by planned dam construction
Mipounga et al. (2020) used specimens in the Oregon State Ichthyology Collection to describe a miniature minnow species from just two locations in Southern Gabon.  One of these sites is a small and shallow stream in immediate proximity to a planned dam site. Thus, dam construction threatens to inundate half the known habitat of this recently discovered and vulnerable species. 
Distribution pattern of two Antarctic fishes resolves a long-standing confusion between their larval stages.
Desvignes et al. (2020) were able to untangle a taxonomic confusion between the larval stages of the two Antarctic dragonfishes, Acanthodraco dewitti and Psilodraco breviceps. Although P. breviceps is endemic to the South Georgia Islands, larvae were described from other places around the Antarctic continent. With molecular data and a redescription of larval A. dewitti, the researchers could proof that the larvae from outside of the range are misidentified as P. breviceps but are in fact A. dewitti.

  • Desvignes, T. Postlethwait, J. H., Konstantinidis P. (2020). Biogeography of the Antarctic dragonfishes Acanthodraco dewitti and Psilodraco breviceps with re-description of Acanthodraco dewitti larvae (Notothenioidei: Bathydraconidae). Polar Biology, 43, 565-572. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00300-020-02661-y

 

Cryptic Speciation within South Africa’s Cape kurper, Sandelia capensis
Bronaugh et al. (2020) collaborated with the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity to investigate the biogeographic history of Sandelia capensis. The team discovered that isolation in small drainages along Africa’s southernmost coast over the last ten million years has led to the evolution of three deeply divergence lineages that likely represent undescribed endemic species.

  • Bronaugh, W. M., Swartz, E. R., & Sidlauskas, B. L. (2020). Between an ocean and a high place: Coastal drainage isolation generates endemic cryptic species in the Cape kurper Sandelia capensis (Anabantiformes: Anabantidae), Cape Region, South Africa. Journal of Fish Biology, 96(5), 1087-1099. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jfb.14182

 

Dam development in Gabon could reduce suitable habitat for marine-associated fishes
Cutler et al. (2020) combined distributional data from our recent collections in Gabon with records from other museums to infer the extent to which dam development could restrict the habitat available to fish species that move between fresh and saltwater environments.  Projected habitat loss was particularly intense in the currently undammed Nyanga drainage and extended at least 400 kilometers upstream within Gabon’s largest river system, the Ogooué.  The team concluded that dams substantially threaten the habitat of some of the most valued fishes in Gabon.

 

Zoogeography of Freshwater Fishes in Coastal Oregon and Washington
Doug Markle (2019) synthesized distributional records from our collection and others to explore the biogeographic processes that led to low diversity of primary freshwater fishes in the modern-day streams and rivers along the Pacific Northwest’s coastline.

Read more here.

  • Markle, D. F. (2019). Drainage evolution and freshwater fish zoogeography in coastal Oregon and Washington. Northwestern Naturalist,100(2), 71-89. https://doi.org/10.1898/NWN-18-18

 

 

First and northern most record of the Pacific Snake Eel
Former undergraduate students Anna P. Lee, Francisco A. T. Pickens, and Jordan D Ortega and their mentor Peter Konstantinidis documented the most northern record, and first occurrence of a Pacific snake eel (Ophichthus triserialis) in Oregon waters. Since 2018 more individuals of this species are reported off the coast of Oregon. The reasons for the occurrence of the appearance of the species so far north of its natural range are unclear, whether it is correlated with a temporal anomaly of the general warming of the oceans.

Northwest Naturalist

  • Pickens, F. A. T., Ortega, J. D., Le, A. P., & Konstantinidis, P. (2018). First Records of the Pacific Snake Eel, Ophichthus triserialis, In Oregon Waters. Northwestern Naturalist, 99(3), 239–241. https://doi.org/10.1898/NWN18-15.1
3D study of sculpin skull shape improves accuracy over 2D approaches
Buser et al. (2020) collected detailed 2D and 3D landmark data from several species of sculpins in our collection and demonstrated that 3D approaches improve the accuracy of downstream morphometric analysis that use those data, and that the choice can affect the results of ecomorphological hypothesis testing.  The study concluded that fishes with particularly broad heads or complex skull shapes are most likely to benefit from three-dimensional treatment.

 

  • Buser, T. J., Sidlauskas, B. L., & Summers, A. P. (2018). 2D or Not 2D? Testing the Utility of 2D Vs. 3D Landmark Data in Geometric Morphometrics of the Sculpin Subfamily Oligocottinae (Pisces; Cottoidea). The Anatomical Record, 301(5), 806–818. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.23752 
Sebastes diaconus (the Deacon Rockfish)
OSIC scientists Ben Frable and Brian Sidlauskas, in collaboration with Wolfe Wagman and Taylor Frierson of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Andres Aguilar of California State University, Los Angeles, have described a new species of rockfish, Sebastes diaconus (the Deacon Rockfish) from the coastal waters of Oregon, Washington and California. The full description is available here.

 

  • Frable, B., Wagman, D., Frierson, T., Aguilar, A., & Sidlauskas, B. (2015). A new species of Sebastes (Scorpaeniformes: Sebastidae) from the northeastern Pacific, with a redescription of the blue rockfish, S. mystinus (Jordan and Gilbert, 1881). : United States Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service. https://doi.org/10.7755/FB.113.4.1
Oregon’s most common fish represents at least three species
Past OSIC graduate student Kendra Hoekzema and her advisor Brian Sidlauskas used molecular tools to demonstrate that populations of speckled dace (Rhinichthys osculus) in Oregon’s Great Basin diverged from each other millions of years ago and likely represent at least three distinct, but cryptic species. You can read the press release about their work here. Specimens and DNA samples from their work are deposited in the OSIC.

 

  • Hoekzema, K., & Sidlauskas, B. L. (2014). Molecular phylogenetics and microsatellite analysis reveal cryptic species of speckled dace (Cyprinidae: Rhinichthys osculus) in Oregon’s Great Basin. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 77, 238–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2014.04.027

 

A new species of Leporinus from the Orinoco Basin, Venezuela
OSIC graduate students Ben Frable and Michael Burns and curator Brian Sidlauskas recently described Leporinus arimaspi from extensive series of fishes collected in the Orinoco basin of Venezula. The name refers to the legendary Arimaspi people of northern Scythia, whose purported possession of just a single eye is reminiscent of the dark spot at the center of the body of the newly described species.

 

  • Burns, M. D., Frable, B. W., & Sidlauskas, B. L. (2014). A New Species of Leporinus (Characiformes: Anostomidae), from the Orinoco Basin, Venezuela. Copeia, 2014(2), 206–214. https://doi.org/10.1643/CI-13-071
The first molecular phylogeny of the Neotropical headstanding fishes in family Chilodontidae
In collaboration with OSIC researchers, Bruno Melo and Claudio Oliveira of the State University of São Paulo, Brazil inferred the first DNA-based phylogeny for this Neotropical fish family phylogeny. Results suggest that some described species are not valid, while others may represent complexes of cryptic and undescribed species. Some of the specimens on which the work is based are housed in the OSIC.

 

  • Melo, B. F., Sidlauskas, B. L., Hoekzema, K., Vari, R. P., & Oliveira, C. (2014). The first molecular phylogeny of Chilodontidae (Teleostei: Ostariophysi: Characiformes) reveals cryptic biodiversity and taxonomic uncertainty. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 70, 286–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2013.09.025
Phylogeography of Rhinichthys cataractae
Daemin Kim and Kevin Conway of Texas A&M University based part of their rangewide phylogeographic study of Rhinichthys cataractae on OSIC specimens.

 

  • Kim, D., & Conway, K. W. (2014). Phylogeography of Rhinichthys cataractae (Teleostei: Cyprinidae): pre-glacial colonization across the Continental Divide and Pleistocene diversification within the Rio Grande drainage. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 111(2), 317–333. https://doi.org/10.1111/bij.12209