Kryptoglanis shajii
Vincent and Thomas 2011
ORDER | SUB-ORDER | FAMILY |
---|---|---|
Siluriformes | Siluroidei | Kryptoglanidae |
Note
Species account reviewed by Ralf Britz.
Synonyms
None.
Country
IndiaTypes
Holotype: ZSI/WGRS/V/2121 59.1mm SL. Paratypes: ZMCC F 0102 35.0mm SL, ZMCC F 0103 54.4mm SL, ZMCC F 0105 35.5mm SL, ZSI/WGRS/V/2121 49.5mm SL [ex ZMCC F 0106].
Distribution
Type locality: a water well at Aloor Village, Thrissur District, Kerala, India, depth of well 5.5 meters. 10°20.30'N, 76°18.37'E. Also known from: a well at Nellayi (Vylore) Village, Kerala, India (10o39’N, 76o27’E), which is 4km north of the type locality (Lundberg, Luckenbill, Subhash Babu and Ng 2014). A further site is at Perambra, Thrissur District (10o34’N, 76o30E), 2km from the type localilty. At the latter site many fish were observed in surface water channels having probably been washed out of the shallow laterite groundwater tunnels it normally inhabits (Binoy, Roshan and Rakesh 2012). The location of the single specimen used by Britz, Kakkassery and Raghavan (2014) was obtained from a public well near the town of Thrissur. The type locality of the clariid fish Horaglanis alikunhii is only 13km from the site described in Binoy, Roshan and Rakesh (2012).
Habitat
The area in which this species (and also Horaglanis and Monopterus) is found is predominantly in laterite.
Systematics
Britz, Kakkassery and Raghavan (2014) used traditional clearing and staining techniques on one individual to reveal the osteological detail. In an almost parallel study Lundberg, Luckenbill, Subhash Babu and Ng (2014) used high-resolution x-ray CT scanning (HRXCT) to examine the osteology of three specimens of K. shajii (specimen details given below). Britz et al. (2014) report on the cartilaginous skeleton, which is something Lundberg et al. (2014) were only able to do only within very confined limits and they also missed several structures. Both studies produced anatomically similar results and conclusions that suggested that this species is highly peculiar and unlike other members of the Siluriformes. In general the anatomical complexity is greatly reduced compared to other species. The conclusion of Vincent and Thomas (2011), that they could see no clear relationship with any family of siluriform fishes, was also supported by both studies. Lundberg, Luckenbill, Subhash Babu and Ng (2014:39) concluded that “…we do not find a simple, nested set of unambiguous synapomorphies that precisely resolve the phylogentic position of Kryptoglanis among catfishes.” Britz, Kakkassey and Raghavan (2014:205) resolved the issue: “Our analysis of the skeleton of Kryptoglanis shows that this unusual catfish cannot be assigned to any of the known catfish families. To highlight its highly unique anatomical structure we have decided to place it in its own family … Kryptoglanidae”. [For an interesting review of traditional and modern methods in fish morphological systematics, exemplified by these two studies, see Hilton, Schnell and Konstantinidis (2015)]. We are still no nearer in knowing which group is sister to Kryptoglanis shajii (though there is some similarity to the Siluridae) and it is probable that molecular data will need to be added to the morphological data in order to get closer to a resolution. [See Genetic resources below, but more will be needed than these small fragments of mitochondrial DNA].
Conservation Status
MuG [NE]
Museum Holdings
BMNH unnumbered 60.0mm SL (Britz, Kakkassery and Raghavan 2014), ANSP 192026 65.0mm SL, ANSP 192452 83mm SL, UMMZ 249918 51.0mm SL (Lundberg, Luckenbill, Subhash Babu and Ng 2014). Five fishes (out of many seen) were collected and preserved by Binoy, Roshan and Rakesh (2012) but their whereabouts was not published. Possibly five specimens in the collection of Moncey Vincent with details in Genetic Resources below.
Internet Resources
GenBank: HG937612.1 | mt cytB | specimen voucher M-CCI-KS1 |
GenBank: HG937611.1 | mt cytB | specimen voucher M-CCI-KF1 |
GenBank: FN691765.1 | mt 16s rRNA | specimen voucher Moncey-CCI-NBFGR-C-KS5 |
GenBank: FN691764.1 | mt 16s rRNA | specimen voucher Moncey-CCI-NBFGR-C-KS4 |
GenBank: HE801568.1 | mt COI | specimen voucher M-CCI-KS7 |
GenBank: HE801567.1 | mt COI | specimen voucher M-CCI-KS4 |
The osteology of Kryptoglanis shajii (from Lundberg, Luckenbill, Subhash Babu and Ng 2014)
Kerala State Groundwater Department
'Alien' catfish baffles scientists!
Key References
- Mercy, T.V.A. (1981)
- Mercy, T.V.A. (1981)
- Mercy, T.V.A. (1982)
- Mercy, T.V.A., Padmanabhan, K.G. and Pillai, N.K. (1982)
- Mercy, T.V.A. (1983)
- Mercy, T.V A., Pillai, N.K. and Balasubramonian, N.K. (1984)
- Mercy, T.V.A. and Pillai, N.K. (1984/5)
- Mercy, T.V.A. (2000)
- Ponniah, A.G. and Gopalakrishnan, A. (2000)
- Mercy, T.V.A. and Pillai, N.K. (2001)
- Mercy, T.V.A., Pillai, N.K. and Balasubramonian, N.K. (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)
- Vincent, M. and Thomas, J. (2011)
- Vincent, M. and Thomas, K.J. (2012)
- Binoy, V. V., Roshan, KS and Rakesh, VB (2012)
- Britz, R., Kakkassery, F. and Raghavan, R. (2014)
- Lundberg, J.G., Luckenbill, K.R., Babu, K.K.S. and Ng, H.H. (2014)
- Varma, A. (2017)
- Pavan-Kumar, A. (2017)
- De Grave, S., Arjun, C.P. and Raghavan, R. (2018)
- Britz, R., Anoop, V.K., Dahanukar, H. and Raghavan, R. (2019)
- Anoop, V.K., Britz, R., Arjun, C.P., Dahanukar, N. and Raghavan, 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)
Mercy, T.V.A. | Journal Article | 1981 | On the unique disposition of the valvula cerebelli in Horaglanis krishnai (Teleostei) |
Mercy, T.V.A. | Thesis | 1981 | Biology of the blind catfish of Kerala, Horaglanis krishnai Menon |
Mercy, T.V.A. | Journal Article | 1982 | On the presence of a forked barbel in the blind catfish Horaglanis krishnai Menon |
Mercy, T.V.A., Padmanabhan, K.G. and Pillai, N.K. | Journal Article | 1982 | Morphological studies on the oocytes of the blind catfish Horaglanis krishnai Menon |
Mercy, T.V.A. | Journal Article | 1983 | Studies on the air bladder of blind clariid Horaglanis krishnai Menon |
Mercy, T.V A., Pillai, N.K. and Balasubramonian, N.K. | Journal Article | 1984 | Studies on the oxygen consumption of the blind catfish Horaglanis krishnai |
Mercy, T.V.A. and Pillai, N.K. | Journal Article | 1984/5 | The anatomy and histology of the alimentary tract of the blind cat-fish Horaglanis krishnai |
Mercy, T.V.A. | Book Section | 2000 | Biology of an endemic blind catfish Horaglanis krishnai Menon |
Ponniah, A.G. and Gopalakrishnan, A. | Book | 2000 | Endemic fish diversity of Western Ghats |
Mercy, T.V.A. and Pillai, N.K. | Journal Article | 2001 | Studies on the cranial osteology of the blind catfish Horaglanis krishnai menon (Pisces, Clariidae) |
Mercy, T.V.A., Pillai, N.K. and Balasubramonian, N.K. | Journal Article | 2001 | Studies on certain aspects of behaviour in the blind catfish Horaglanis krishnia Menon |
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 |
Vincent, M. and Thomas, J. | Journal Article | 2011 | Kryptoglanis shajii, an enigmatic subterranean-spring catfish (Siluriformes, Incertae sedis) from Kerala, India |
Vincent, M. and Thomas, K.J. | Book Section | 2012 | A preliminary survey on the subterranean piscine diversity in Thrissur District, Kerala, India |
Binoy, V. V., Roshan, KS and Rakesh, VB | Journal Article | 2012 | Occurence of Kryptoglanis shajii, an enigmatic subterranean-spring catfish (Siluriformes, incertae sedis) in channels of paddy field |
Britz, R., Kakkassery, F. and Raghavan, R. | Journal Article | 2014 | Osteology of Kryptoglanis shajii, a stygobitic catfish (Teleostei: Siluriformes) from Peninsular India with a diagnosis of the new family Kryptoglanidae |
Lundberg, J.G., Luckenbill, K.R., Babu, K.K.S. and Ng, H.H. | Journal Article | 2014 | A tomographic osteology of the taxonomically puzzling catfish Kryptoglanis shajii (Siluriformes, Siluroidei, incertae sedis): description and a first phylogentic interpretation |
Varma, A. | Book | 2017 | Groundwater resource and governance in Kerala: status issues and prospects |
Pavan-Kumar, A. | Journal Article | 2017 | Molecular phylogeny of genus Horaglanis (Indian blind catfishes) within Family Clariidae |
De Grave, S., Arjun, C.P. and Raghavan, R. | Journal Article | 2018 | The discovery of Euryrhynchidae (Crustacea: Decapoda) in India, with the description of a new genus and species |
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 |
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) |
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 |