Subterranean Fishes of the World

6962

2025

Journal of Ichthyology

205-238

65

We use synchrotron microtomography to study the osteology of an eyeless stygobitic catfish from South China with the objective of examining its systematic position. The results support to assign this species to the superfamily Sisoroidea. Proliobagrus He, Lundberg, Yang et Yang, gen. nov. is proposed diagnosed with a combination of characters: infraorbital bones reduced to one posteriormost element and lacrimal; mesocoracoid arch incomplete; first dorsal-fin pterygiophore compressed lacking paired bony canals for erector muscles, fused with an anteriorly directed process at its proximal end, and remote from Weberian complex; compound Weberian centrum with a ventral median ridge instead of paired ventrolateral ridges, an auxillary parapophysis posterolaterally off compound Weberian centrum, heavy strut-like process ventrally off the fourth neural spine, claustrum absent, tripus with outwardly extended transformator process; anterior cranial fontanelle closed, posterior cranial fontanelle subdivided into anterior and posterior remnant; first proximal pectoral-fin radial roughly round; dorsal and ventral procurrent caudal-fin rays less than ten respectively; base of nasal barbel on anterior rim of posterior nostril; skin lacking tubercles. In a first cladistic analysis, Proliobagrus is grouped with sampled amblycipitid species. The abrupt change of insert position of the first dorsal-fin pterygoid implies that none of extant amblycipitid species could be considered as direct ancestor of Proliobagrus and it represents a relic lineage surviving in subterranean waters.

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