Zeiform Mouthbrooding in the Deepsea – Dispelling a Myth

Abstract

Mouthbrooding or oral incubation, the retention of early developmental stages inside of the mouth for an extended period of time, has evolved multiple times in bony fishes 1,2 . Though uncommon, this form of parental care has been documented and well-studied in several groups of freshwater fishes but is also known to occur in a small number of marine fishes, all inhabiting coastal waters 1,2 . A recent paper 3 , reported for the first time mouthbrooding in a deep-water fish species, the zeiform Parazen pacificus, which according to the authors "fills in a gap in the larval literature for this family of fishes and prompts further investigation into other novel reproductive modes of deep-sea fauna." Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 8 April 2020