Distribution and abundance of the Patagonian lamprey (Geotria macrostoma) in the largest unfragmented river of southern Patagonia, Argentina

Quiroga, Pamela; Baker, Cindy F.; Baigún, Claudio; Stewart, Michael; Lancelotti, Julio L.; Riva Rossi, Carla

doi:10.1007/s10641-023-01472-4

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“…The severe repercussions of anthropogenic activities on lamprey habitats, coupled with climate change effects on water temperatures, hydrology, and marine coastal circulation patterns, are causes for conservation concern. Documentation on lamprey species and populations worldwide (Hume et al, 2021;Lucas et al, 2021;Moser et al, 2021) These dams will prevent the access to critical habitats essential for spawning and larvae rearing in the catchment (Baigún et al, 2022;Baker et al, 2021;Quiroga et al, 2023). The poorly documented but evident declining of lamprey populations in the major Patagonian…”

Section: Morphological Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of long‐preserved specimens reveals the historical geographic range of the Patagonian lamprey Geotria macrostoma (Burmeister, 1868) in southern South America

Riva Rossi,

Renaud,

Quiroga

et al. 2024

Journal of Fish Biology

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The lamprey genus Geotria Gray, 1851 currently includes only two species: G. australis and G. macrostoma. However, taxonomic relationships within the genus have traditionally been ambiguous and difficult to establish due to the extreme changes in morphology, dentition, and coloration that lampreys undergo during their life cycles, particularly during upstream migration and sexual maturation. Consequently, several lamprey specimens held in museum collections have remained unidentified, especially those from Argentina. In this study, a series of morphometric characters were subjected to discriminant function analysis (DFA) to identify the lamprey species collected during 1867–2004 from the de la Plata River and Patagonia. These specimens are housed at the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia” in Buenos Aires, the Museo de Historia Natural de Montevideo, and the Naturhistoriska riksmuseet in Stockholm. Based on the proportions of the length of the oral disc, prebranchial, and pre‐caudal body regions, and the depth of the trunk, DFA provided conclusive evidence that the specimens corresponded to the recently revalidated G. macrostoma (Burmeister, 1868), which was originally incorrectly named as Petromyzon macrostomus Burmeister, 1868, Exomegas macrostomus (Berg, 1899), Geotria chilensis (Berg, 1895), and Geotria macrostoma f. gallegensis Smitt, 1901, as well as other nontype museum individuals of uncertain taxonomic status. The identifications of these long‐preserved museum specimens provided key information on the historical geographic range of Argentinian lampreys and suggest that the disappearance of the species reported from northern localities (the Pampean Region) can be attributed to the degradation of their critical habitats, primarily caused by anthropogenic impact and climate change.

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