First finding of giant fathead (Cubiceps paradoxus, Nomeidae) in the Atlantic Ocean (coast of Mauritania)

A new maximum size for the family Nomeidae and the third record of a longfin cigarfish, Cubiceps paradoxus (Stromateoidei: Nomeidae) from California, USA

“…Additionally, the orbit diameter of the specimen is small, 6.0 times in head length and c . 2.0 times in snout length (estimated from Figure 1a), matching descriptions of C. paradoxus (in C. capensis and C. baxteri the orbit diameter is equal to snout length (Butler, 1979; Kukuev & Gulyugin, 2015).…”

“…Sequences were aligned and edited in Sequencher v4.8, and the resulting contig was compared to sequences in GenBank using the BLAST function. (Agafonova, 1994;Butler, 1979;Kukuev & Gulyugin, 2015). In this specimen, a portion of the vomer is present and no teeth are apparent, which excludes all…”

“…Cubiceps are rare off California, with only three adults from two species known in collections. These are two longfin cigarfish (or giant fathead sensu Kukuev & Gulyugin, 2015), C. paradoxus Butler, 1979: the holotype, LACM 37048‐1 caught on hook and line off Portuguese Bend, Los Angeles County in 1954 (Butler, 1979) and LACM 45680‐1 collected in Los Angeles Harbour in 1986 (Ellis et al ., 1988) and a single record of the Cape cigarfish, C. capensis (Smith 1845), CAS 218171 caught in a gill net 145 km WSW of Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo County, outside state waters in 2003 (McCosker et al ., 2004). In addition, the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations collected larvae identified as black fathead, C. baxteri McCulloch 1923 far offshore (Watson, 1996).…”

“…Despite damage to the head and upper jaw, we identified the newly collected specimen as C. paradoxus based on key morphological features. This species is known from the eastern Pacific and eastern Atlantic oceans to depths of 400 m (Agafonova, 1994; Kukuev & Gulyugin, 2015). To further verify the identification, a sequence of the mitochondrial cytochrome‐oxidase I gene from this specimen was compared against voucher records.…”

“…Species of Cubiceps are differentiated by the presence and arrangement of teeth on the vomer and tongue (Agafonova, 1994; Butler, 1979; Kukuev & Gulyugin, 2015). In this specimen, a portion of the vomer is present and no teeth are apparent, which excludes all Cubiceps species except C. paradoxus .…”