Aenigmachanna gollum
Britz, Anoop, Dahanukar and Raghavan 2019
| ORDER | SUB-ORDER | FAMILY |
|---|---|---|
| Anabantiformes | Channoidei | Aenigmachannidae |
Synonyms
Aenigmachanna mahabali Kumar, Basheer and Ravi 2019
See Raghaven et al. (2022) for a discussion of this synonymy.
Country
IndiaTypes
Holotype: BNHS FWF 966 90.2mm SL. Paratype: BNHS FWF 967 80.1mm SL
Distribution
Type locality: Oorakam, Malappuram, Kerala, India (11o03'52"N, 76o01'00"E).
Also known from (Raghavan et al. 2022):
Habitat
Not known. The fishes were collected from a flooded paddy field and the actual habitat has not been discovered.
Systematics
In the original description of this genus and species (Britz et al. 2019) it was shown that it was considerably divergent from the genera Channa and Parachanna under a cox1 analysis. Further work has shown conclusively that the genus and its two known species are so divergent as to require a new Family to contain them - Aenigmachannidae Britz, Dahanukar, Anoop, Philip, Clark, Raghavan and Ruber 2020. A COI sequence shows a 12.3% distance bewtween A. gollum and the only other species in the genus A. mahabali (Kumar et al. 2019). This is not surprising given the distance between type localities (over 200km), and the presence of a major biogeographic barrier, the Palghat Gap, between them.
Biological Notes
Nothing known.
Conservation Status
MG [NE]
Museum Holdings
As above only.
Internet Resources
National Geographic article about the new Family
Zoobank registration for Aenigmachanna mahabali
Video 1 Rahul Kumar
Video 2 Rahul Kumar
Key References
- Kader, P.B.A. (1993)
- Ranjit Daniels, R.J. (2001)
- Biju, S.D. and Bossuyt, F. (2003)
- Bossuyt, F., Meegaskumbura, M., Beenaerts, N., Gower, D.J., Pethiyagoda, R., Roelants, K., Mannaert, A., Wilkinson, M., Bahir, M.M., Manamendra-Arachchi, K., Ng, P.K.L., Schneider, C.K., Oommen, O.V. and Milinkovitch, M.C. (2004)
- Roelants, K., Jiang, J. and Bossuyt, F. (2004)
- Gunawardene, N.R. et al. (2007)
- Subhash Babu, K.K. and Sivasankaran, B.N. (2010)
- Varma, A. (2017)
- Conte-Grand, C., Britz, R., Dahanukar, N., Raghavan, R., Pethiyagoda, R., Tan, H.H., Hadiaty, R.K., Yaakob, N.S. and Ruber, L. (2017)
- Anoop, V.K., Britz, R., Arjun, C.P., Dahanukar, N. and Raghavan, R. (2019)
- Britz, R., Anoop, V.K., Dahanukar, H. and Raghavan, R. (2019)
- Kumar, R.G., Basheer, V.S. and Ravi, C. (2019)
- Rüber, L., Tan, H.H. and Britz, R. (2019)
- Sidharthan, A., Raghavan, R., Anoop, V.K., Philip. S. and Dahanukar, N. (2020)
- Britz, R., Dahanukar, N., Anoop, V.K., Philip, S., Clark, B., Raghavan, R. and Rüber, L. (2020)
- Raghavan, R., Britz, R. and Dahanukar, N. (2021)
- Raghavan, R., Dahanukar, N., Anoop, V.K., Arjun, C.P. and Britz, R. (2022)
| Kader, P.B.A. | Thesis | 1993 | Fishes and fisheries of inland waters of Thrissur district, Kerala |
| Ranjit Daniels, R.J. | Journal Article | 2001 | Endemic fishes of the Western Ghats and the Satpura hypothesis |
| Biju, S.D. and Bossuyt, F. | Journal Article | 2003 | New frog family from India reveals an ancient biogeographical link with the Seychelles |
| Bossuyt, F., Meegaskumbura, M., Beenaerts, N., Gower, D.J., Pethiyagoda, R., Roelants, K., Mannaert, A., Wilkinson, M., Bahir, M.M., Manamendra-Arachchi, K., Ng, P.K.L., Schneider, C.K., Oommen, O.V. and Milinkovitch, M.C. | Journal Article | 2004 | Local endemism within the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot |
| Roelants, K., Jiang, J. and Bossuyt, F. | Journal Article | 2004 | Endemic ranid (Amphibia: Anura) genera in southern mountain ranges of the Indian subcontinent represent ancient frog lineages: evidence from molecular data |
| Gunawardene, N.R. et al. | Journal Article | 2007 | A brief overview of the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot |
| Subhash Babu, K.K. and Sivasankaran, B.N. | Conference Paper | 2010 | The hypogean fauna of selected ecosystems of Kerala, India, with two new records |
| Varma, A. | Book | 2017 | Groundwater resource and governance in Kerala: status issues and prospects |
| Conte-Grand, C., Britz, R., Dahanukar, N., Raghavan, R., Pethiyagoda, R., Tan, H.H., Hadiaty, R.K., Yaakob, N.S. and Ruber, L. | Journal Article | 2017 | Barcoding snakeheads (Teleostei, Channidae) revisited: Discovering greater species diversity and resolving perpetuated taxonomic confusions |
| Anoop, V.K., Britz, R., Arjun, C.P., Dahanukar, N. and Raghavan, R. | Journal Article | 2019 | Pangio bhujia, a new, peculiar species of miniature subterranean eel loach lacking dorsal and pelvic fins from India (Teleostei: Cobitidae) |
| Britz, R., Anoop, V.K., Dahanukar, H. and Raghavan, R. | Journal Article | 2019 | The subterranean Aenigmachanna gollum, a new genus and species of snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) from Kerala, India |
| Kumar, R.G., Basheer, V.S. and Ravi, C. | Journal Article | 2019 | Aenigmachanna mahabali, a new species of troglophilic snakehead (Pisces: Channidae) from Kerala, India |
| Rüber, L., Tan, H.H. and Britz, R. | Journal Article | 2019 | Snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) diversity and the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot |
| Sidharthan, A., Raghavan, R., Anoop, V.K., Philip. S. and Dahanukar, N. | Journal Article | 2020 | Riddle on the riffle: Miocene diversification and biogeography of endemic mountain loaches in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot |
| Britz, R., Dahanukar, N., Anoop, V.K., Philip, S., Clark, B., Raghavan, R. and Rüber, L. | Journal Article | 2020 | Aenigmachannidae, a new family of snakehead fishes (Teleostei: Channoidei) from subterranean waters of South India |
| Raghavan, R., Britz, R. and Dahanukar, N. | Journal Article | 2021 | Poor groundwater governance threatens ancient subterranean fishes |
| Raghavan, R., Dahanukar, N., Anoop, V.K., Arjun, C.P. and Britz, R. | Journal Article | 2022 | Diversity and distribution of dragon snakeheads of the family Aenigmachannidae, and the identity of Aenigmachanna mahabali |