Mountain galaxias (species complex)

The mountain galaxias is a species complex of freshwater galaxiid fish found all over southeast Australia.[1][2]

This article is about the mountain galaxias species complex. For the individual species, see Galaxias olidus.

Mountain galaxias
Galaxias olidus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Actinopterygii
Order:
Osmeriformes
Family:
Galaxiidae
Subfamily:
Galaxiinae
Genus:
Galaxias

Species complex

Recent studies have identified fifteen species within the complex including three previously known species (shown in this list by ‡)[2]

Range
Range of the mountain Galaxias species complex

Mountain galaxias occupies a vast geographical range from southern Queensland to the Adelaide Hills in South Australia, and while occurring widely in the Murray-Darling river system, are also found in eastern and southern coastal systems. How much of their coastal distribution is due to natural river capture events (although it is certain much of it is) and how much of it may be due to migration is not clear, for many mountain galaxias species have the ability to "climb" natural migration barriers with modified pelvic fin structures.[2][3] Individual species within the complex have ranges varying from across almost the entire range of the complex itself down to extremely restricted ranges within a single or only a very small number of catchments.[2]

References
  1. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2014). "Galaxias olidus" in FishBase. 11 2014 version.
  2. Raadik, T.A. (2014). "Fifteen from one: a revision of the Galaxias olidus Günther, 1866 complex (Teleostei, Galaxiidae) in south-eastern Australia recognises three previously described taxa and describes 12 new species" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3898 (1): 1–198. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3898.1.1. PMID 25543673. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
  3. McDowall R.M. (2006). "Crying wolf, crying foul, or crying shame: alien salmonids and a biodiversity crisis in the southern cool-temperate galaxioid fishes?". Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries. 16 (3–4): 233–422. doi:10.1007/s11160-006-9017-7. S2CID 11504101.
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