Paracapoeta, a new genus of the Cyprinidae from Mesopotamia, Cilicia and Levant (Teleostei, Cypriniformes)

By

Turan, Davut
Kaya, Cüneyt
Aksu, Ismail
Bektaş, Yusuf

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2022

Original Publication

Zoosystematics and evolution

Volume

98

Pages

201--212

Subjects

Capoeta , Mesopotamia , molecular phylogeny , scrapers , taxanomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.98.81463

 

Abstract

The molecular and morphological studies carried out within the scope of this study revealed that the scrapers, known as the Mesopotamian group, belong to a different genus. The Paracapoeta gen. nov., from the Mesopotomia and Levant, is distinguished from Capoeta and Luciobarbus species by the presence of a strong ligament between the base of the last simple and the first branched rays of the dorsal-fin (vs. no or a very weak ligament). The Paracapoeta further differs from Capoeta by the last simple dorsal-fin ray strongly ossified in adult specimens (more than 75%, vs. less than 75%). The Paracapoeta further differs from Luciobarbus by the lower lip with horny layer (vs. fleshy lips). The molecular phylogeny based on the combined dataset (COI + Cytb, 1312 bp.) showed that the genus Paracapoeta was recovered from the other groups in the subfamily Barbinae with high bootstrap and posterior probability values (BP: 94%, PP: 0.96). Also, Paracapoeta and Capoeta are well differentiated by an average genetic distance of 8.02±0.78%. The morphological and molecular findings have largely overlapped each other. Besides, Capoeta turani is treated as a synonym of Capoeta erhani.