Following the Mangroves: diversification in the banded lampeye Aplocheilichthys spilauchen (Duméril, 1861) (Cyprinodontiformes: Procatopodidae) along the Atlantic coast of Africa.

Available ecological information, an extensive distributional range, conflicting osteological data, and a proposed early Miocene origin provide the impetus for the present study which investigates genetic structuring, biogeographic, and phylogenetic relationships within the Aplocheilichthys spilauchen lineage. Through the analysis of the mitochondrial gene COI, species delimitation methods (ABGD, GB, GMYC, bPTP) were applied, recognizing 6-7 OTUs with absolute pairwise genetic distances ranging between 8 and 22%. The onset of diversification is estimated to be within the middle Miocene and both dispersal and vicariance-shaped A. spilauchen diversity and distribution, as suggested by time-calibrated and ancestral range reconstruction (S-DIVA) analyses. We report for the first time, a pattern of diversification within a lineage of brackish water fish that is concordant with the historical distribution of coastal mangroves forests, shaped by a series of historical events that likely affected forest cover since the middle Miocene (e.g. major climate shifts and sea-level fluctuations, onset of the modern Congo River outlet, increased volcanism in the Cameroon Volcanic Line). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10750-020-04497-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Can an eel be a flatfish? Observations on enigmatic asymmetrical heterenchelyids from the Guinea coast of West Africa.

Morphological asymmetry is described in the heterenchelyid mud eel Pythonichthys cf. macrurus from inshore coastal waters of Guinea, West Africa. The intensity of asymmetry differs between two examined specimens, with the more extreme case exhibiting strong asymmetry in both external and internal features, including unilateral depigmentation, reductive degeneration and embedding of a blind-side eye, skewed jaws with reduced dentition and tooth loss. The extent and nature of asymmetry suggests that this individual probably lived primarily on its left lateral side, not unlike sinistral pleuronectiform flatfishes.

Review of the smiliogastrin cyprinids of the Kwilu River (Kasai Basin, central Africa), revised diagnosis for Clypeobarbus (Cyprinidae: Cyprininae: Smiliogastrini) and description of a new species.

A revised diagnosis for the smiliogastrin genus Clypeobarbus is provided and a new species, Clypeobarbus breviclipeus, from the Kwilu River (Kasai Basin) of central Africa, is described. Another species co-occurring in the Kwilu system, 'Barbus' matthesi, shares all diagnostic morphological synapomorphies of Clypeobarbus and its generic reassignment is proposed with a taxonomic redescription provided. Nine species are now placed within Clypeobarbus: Clypeobarbus pleuropholis, Clypeobarbus congicus, Clypeobarbus pseudognathodon, Clypeobarbus bomokandi, Clypeobarbus hypsolepis, Clypeobarbus schoutedeni, Clypeobarbus matthesi, Clypeobarbus bellcrossi and Clypeobarbus breviclipeus n. sp.