The number of recognized genera in Eptatretinae has been historically controversial. The family is subdivided into the subfamilies Eptatretinae, Myxininae and Rubicundinae ( Fernholm et al., 2013). Our current understanding of the systematics of hagfishes recognizes the order Myxiniformes, which contains the monophyletic family Myxinidae. The latitudinal range of hagfishes extends from the Arctic Circle ( Wisner & McMillan, 1995) to the South Shetland Islands, near Antarctica ( Norman, 1937), but most species are found in temperate and tropical waters.
Recent studies have indicated that some species are also closely associated with deep-sea coral reefs ( Mincarone & McCosker, 2004 Fernholm & Quattrini, 2008, Kuo et al., 2010), hydrothermal vents ( Møller & Jones, 2007) and cold seeps ( Polanco-Fernandez & Fernholm, 2014). They usually occupy burrows located in soft, mud-bottom habitats, with some species occurring in shallow waters ( Mincarone & Soto, 2001 Fernholm & Vinding, 2012) and others down to at least 2743 m ( Wisner & McMillan, 1990). Hagfishes (Myxinidae) comprise a monophyletic group of jawless, cartilaginous, eel-like, basal craniates with an entirely marine distribution, inhabiting the cool or deep parts of the oceans of both hemispheres. The large number of endemic hagfishes in the geologically young Galapagos Islands suggests that there is much global hagfish diversity yet to be discovered.Įcuador, Eptatretus, Myxine, Myxiniformes, systematics INTRODUCTION A phylogenetic hypothesis based on molecular data suggests that Galapagos hagfishes arose from multiple independent colonisations of the islands from as many as five different ancestral lineages. Our species delineations were based on both morphological and molecular analyses. Myxine phantasma is remarkable in that it is the only species of Myxine known to completely lack melanin-based pigments. In this paper, we provide a review of the eight species of hagfishes from the Galapagos Islands, including new diagnoses and an identification key for all species. During a recent expedition to the archipelago, six species of hagfishes were collected, including four undescribed species of the genera Eptatretus ( Eptatretus goslinei sp. Among the 83 valid species, four are described from the Galapagos Islands: Eptatretus bobwisneri, E.
Hagfishes are an ancient group of benthic marine craniates that are found in deep or cold waters around the world.
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