Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 2690 No. 1: 29 Nov. 2010
Type: Articles
Published: 2010-11-29
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2690.1.4
Page range: 43–52
Abstract views: 30
PDF downloaded: 2

A new species of Danakilia (Teleostei, Cichlidae) from Lake Abaeded in the Danakil Depression of Eritrea (East Africa)

Division of Vertebrate Zoology, Department of Ichthyology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024
Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano, Corso Venezia 55, 20121 Milano, Italy
Universität Wien, Fakultät für Lebenswissenschaften, Department für Evolutionsbiologie, Althanstrasse 14, A - 1090 Wien, Austria
Fish Eritrea East Africa Danakilia Cichlidae

Abstract

A new species of cichlid fish is described from a small, endorheic lake (Lake Abaeded), situated some 30 m below sea level in the Danakil Depression of Eritrea (East Africa). Danakilia dinicolai is readily distinguished from its congener, D. franchettii, on the basis of body proportions and in the possession of markedly longer pectoral fins at all sizes. Additionally, oral dentition is more robust than that of its congener, and the lower pharyngeal jaw is markedly hypertrophied and covered with considerably finer and more densely implanted teeth on the posterior field of the jaw.

References

  1. Barel, C.D.N., van Ojen, M.J.P., Witte, F. & Witte-Maas, E.L.M. (1977) An introduction to the taxonomy and morphology of the haplochromine Cichlidae from Lake Victoria. Netherlands Journal of Zoology, 27, 333–389.

    Beyene, A. & Abdelsalam, M.G. (2005) Tectonics of the Afar depression: A review and synthesis. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 41, 41–59.

    Barberi, F., Borsi, S., Ferrara, G., Marinelli, G., Santacroce, R., Tazieff, H. & Varet, J. (1972) Evolution of the Danakil Depression (Afar, Ethiopia) in Light of Radiometric Age. Journal of Geology, 80, 720–729.

    Bonatti, E., Emiliani, C., Ostlund, G. & Rydell, H. (1971) Final desiccation of the Afar Rift. Science, 172, 468–469.

    Gasse, F. (1974) Les Diatomées des Sédiments Holocènes du Bassin du Lac Afrera (Giulietti) (Afar Septentrional, Ethiopie). Essai de Reconstitution de l'Évolution du Milieu. Internationale Revue der gesamten Hydrobiologie und Hydrographie, 59, 95–122.

    Gasse, F. & Street, F.A. (1978). Late Quaternary lake level fluctuations and environments of the Northern Rift Valley and Afar Region (Ethiopia and Djibouti). Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology, 24, 279– 325.

    Getahun, A. & Lazara, K.J. (2001) Lebias stiassnyae: A new species of killifish from Lake Adfera, Ethiopia (Teleostei: Cyprinodontidae). Copeia 2001, 1, 150–153.

    Schwarzer, J., Misof, B., Tautz, D. & Schliewen, U.K. (2009) The root of the East African cichlid radiations. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2009, 9, 186.

    Taylor, W.R. & Van Dyke, G.C. (1985) Revised procedures for staining and clearing small fishes and other vertebrates for bone and cartilage study. Cybium, 9, 107–119.

    Trewavas, E. (1983) Tilapiine Fishes of the genera Sarotherodon, Oreochromis and Danakilia. Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History), London, 583 pp.

    Vinciguerra, D. (1931) Spedizione del Barone Raimondo Franchetti in Dancalia. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale “Giacomo Doria”, 55, 96-108.