New fish species discovered in China's Xizang

A new fish species has been discovered in Zayul County, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, providing insights for studies of fish diversity and biological evolution in the Himalayan area, said the Institute of Plateau Biology of the Xizang Autonomous Region on Saturday.

Named Glaridoglanis verruciloba sp. nov., the species is a newly identified glyptosternine catfish featuring an enlarged lower lip bearing four to seven verruciform lobes on the central-posterior margin and other distinct morphological characters.

Specimens of the fish were first collected by a joint research team from the institute and the Xizang Museum of Natural Science, Zaozhuang University, and the Institute of Hydrobiology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, from the Zayul River in southwestern Xizang in April this year. However, they were misidentified as their congener, G. andersonii.

Through morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses, the research team confirmed that the fish specimens belonged to a new species, as reported in a study published in the international academic journal ZooKeys on Wednesday.

As the third valid species recognized within the genus Glaridoglanis, this species provides valuable new material for studies on the origin, diversification and adaptive evolution of freshwater fishes along the southeastern margin of the Himalayas, the researchers said.