What is it about?
This article describes a new species of Neotropical cichlid fish of the genus Gymnogeophagus, from the Middle Paraná basin, in Misiones, Northwestern Argentina. This region is a hot spot of endemism. This species stands out for the remarkable coloration of the males, with an intense blue coloration on the body and a strong red tone on the unpaired fins that have iridescent blue dots with white edges. This species is closely related to other species with an adjacent distribution: G. caaguazuensis from the Paraguay basin and Gymnogeophagus australis from the lower Paraná and Uruguay basins.
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Why is it important?
The new species comes from a highly endemic area, which reinforces the importance of conserving this region and its aquatic environments. It also gives a new perspective on the evolution of fish in the La Plata basin, providing new biogeographic evidence on the distribution and relationship of the species in it, providing a better resolution of the phylogenetic relationships of the species within this genus and providing a better framework to understand the evolution of this group and to study characteristics such as their behavior, anatomy, physiology and ecology.
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This page is a summary of: Description of a new species of the Neotropical cichlid genus Gymnogeophagus Miranda Ribeiro, 1918 (Teleostei: Cichliformes) from the Middle Paraná basin, Misiones, Argentina, PLoS ONE, February 2019, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210166.
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