Section

With more than 35,000 valid species fishes are the most diverse group of all vertebrates and every year more than 300 new species are being discovered and scientifically described. Fishes are without equal among vertebrates in terms of their diversity in size (ranging from the minnow Paedocypris progenetica maturing at 8 mm to the 18 m long hale shark), diversity in shape (from the extremely elongate snipe eel Nemichthys scolopaceus with more than 1000 vertebrae to the laterally flattened tailless Ocean sunfish Mola mola) or diversity in colouration (from the transparent Danionella translucida to the mandarin dragonet Synchiropus splendidus with psychedelic colours).

Fish research in the Ichthyology Section in Dresden focuses on comparative anatomy, phylogenetics, systematics and taxonomy of actinopterygian fishes. The research topics we address range from general questions of evolutionary biology and homology and studies of higher level relationships to basal problems in taxonomy and systematics of various fish groups. Although our primary approach to phylogenetic questions is and will remain deeply founded in morphology, we are interested in tests of morphology-based hypotheses with molecular data and we are involved in several ongoing collaborations.

Our taxonomic interest lies with the freshwater fishes of SouthernAsia, in particular those of India and Myanmar/Burma, both countries from which numeorus new species have been described in recent years. Combining traditional taxonomic methods with recent molecular approaches, i.e. integrative taxonomy, we address taxonomic questions. These systematic studies form the basis for more general questions about biogeographical patterns and how these have evolved.

The morphology based questions we are trying to resolve concern the relationship between evolution and development. We investigate how ontogenies change during evolution and try to understand how complex structures, like e.g. the tail of the ocean sunfishes, the Weberian apparatus of Otophysi, or recently the priapium of the penis-head fishes, have evolved. In addition, we study the ontogeny of characters to resolve long-standing homology issues and thus to get a better idea about the phylogenetic relationships of various groups. A research area that has occupied our interest for the past few years is that of miniaturisation in fishes and its anatomical and ontogenetic consequences for the organism. We have focussed in particular on the case of extreme organism-wide progenesis (developmental truncation) in the miniature species of the genera Danionella and Paedocypris. Studies into the evolutionary process of heterochrony are of special significance here.

Ichthyological research in Dresden is part of the Senckenberg Research Area Biodiversity and Systematics.

A unique and endemic fauna of subterranean organisms, including 10 species of fishes, has evolved in aquifers along the coastal area at the foot of the Western Ghats, a hill range running along the west coast of peninsular India. The first fish species from this habitat was described in 1950, the most recent ones only last year (2019). Among these is the spectacular, new genus and species, Aenigmachanna gollum, the gollum snakehead.In a collaborative project with Rajeev Raghavan, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences in Kochi, Siby Philip, Nirmalagiri College in Kannur, und Neelesh Dahanukar, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Pune, we are studying the anatomy and phylogenetic position as well as the population structure of these strange fishes.

With slightly more than 20 species the Phallostethidae, the penis-head fishes, are only a small family within Atherinomorpha. Anatomically, however, the tiny 15-35 mm long transparent fishes are spectacular and unique. Males of the penis-head fishes have modified their pelvic fins into an extremely asymmetrical and anatomically highly complex copulatory organ, the priapium. The organ comprises more than a dozen skeletal elements, a number of associated muscles and openings of the digestive and urogenital systems that have been shifted anteriorly and asymmetrically onto one side of the priapium. In many species there is left and right sidedness of the asymmetrical priapium so that it is situated either on the right or on the left side of the ventral head and organized like mirror images. During my employment at the Natural History Museum in London this project was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and we investigated the ontogenetic development of the priapium and developmental regulation of its asymmetry at the genetic level. We have now comprehensive information on the morphological development of the skeleton of the priapium and are still trying to better understand the developmental genetic basis of asymmetry. This project is a collaboration with Ariane Standing and Gareth Fraser, University of Florida, Gainesville, and Heok Hui Tan, Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum in Singapore.

Species of the cyprinid genera Paedocypris and Danionella are among the smallest of all fishes and vertebrates and mature at lengths of 8-10 mm. Anatomically these miniature fishes closely resemble larval stages of other cyprinids. They have evolved through the process of progenesis, which has influenced almost the entire organism. More than 60 of the skeletal elements that are present in closely related species, as e.g. the zebrafish Danio rerio, are missing in Paedocypris and Danionella. Current projects are focused on (1) understanding the influence of the evolutionary process of progenetic heterochrony on the development of these miniature fishes (2) investigating genomic correlates of miniaturization and/or progenesis. These are collaborative projects with Kevin Conway, Texas A&M University, College Station, und Lukas Rüber, Natural History Museum Bern.

We also maintain various collaborations with the aim of describing new freshwater fish species from Myanmar and India. The latest new species description is a spiny eel species from Myanmar, Macrognathus orthosemos (bottom row, middle).

The Ichthyology collection at the Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden was established as a unit in 1880 and has been led by a curator since 1961. The collection comprises (1) the surviving parts of the old Dresden collection, (2) parts of the former collection of the University of Leipzig, which was moved to Dresden in the 1970s, and (3) collections made by the previous curators and associated ichthyologists.

Large parts of the former Dresden collection were destroyed during the bombing of the city at the end of WW II. However, several important specimens of species now extinct in Saxony have survived including specimens of Acipenser sturio and Alburnoides bipunctatus. Valuable type specimens also remain while others have been destroyed. The unique fish specimens of the University of Leipzig’s old collection are among the oldest and represent important faunistic records including a specimen of Coregonus oxyrhinchus, which was collected in the river Elbe and further specimens collected by E. Poeppig (1798-1868) and his colleagues. Important additions to the collections since the 1990’s were contributed by the previous curator Axel Zarske from collections in Peru and Bolivia and a number of ichthyologists and fish experts who collected in Central and South America (V. Etzel, M. K. Meyer, G. Hein, J. Knaack, H.-J. Franke, R. Geisler, J. Géry, T. Litz, S. Körber). The collections from these parts of the world account for ca. 40% of the entire fish collection in Dresden. An additional 18% of the specimens were collected in Germany, with the majority (10% of entire collection) from Saxony. At the end of 2019 the fish collection comprised around 40,000 objects. The fish collection includes type material of around 160 species with a focus on freshwater fishes from Central and South America. The collection is currently being databased.

Britz, R., Dahanukar, N., Anoop, V. K., Philip, S., Clark, B., Raghavan, R. & L. Rüber. (2020). Aenigmachannidae, a new family of snakehead fishes (Teleostei: Channoidei) from subterranean waters of South India. Scientific Reports. 10 (1), [16081], 1-14. https://rdcu.be/b7TVN

Sudasinghe, H., Pethiyagoda, R., Meegaskumbura, M., Maduwage, K. & R. Britz (2020). Channa kelaartii, a valid species of dwarf snakehead from Sri Lanka and southern peninsular India (Teleostei: Channidae). Vertebrate Zoology, 70: 157-170.

Mattox, G. M. T. Mattox, Souza, C. S., Toledo-Piza, M., Britz, R. & C. Oliveira. (2020). A new miniature species of Priocharax (Teleostei: Characiformes: Characidae) from the Rio Madeira drainage, Brazil, with comments on the adipose fin in characiforms. Vertebrate Zoology. 70(3), 417-433.

Britz, R., Johnson, D. & K. W. Conway. (2020). Zeiform mouthbrooding in the deep sea – dispelling a myth. Preprints, 1-3. (8 April 2020, doi:10.20944/preprints202004.0132.v1)

Sudasinghe, H., Ranasinghe, R. H. T., Pethiyagoda, R. Meegaskumbara, M. & R. Britz. (2020). Genetic diversity and morphological stasis in the Ceylon Snakehead, Channa orientalis (Teleostei: Channidae). Ichthyological Research, 1-14. (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-020-00768-0)

Rüber, L., Tan, H. H. & R. Britz (2020). Snakehead diversity and the Eastern Himalayan biodiversity hotspot. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, 58: 356-386.

Sudasinghe, H., Adamson, E. A. S., Tharindu Ranasinghe, R. H., Meegaskumbara, M., Ikeba, C. & R. Britz (2020). Unexpected species diversity within Sri Lanka’s snakehead fishes of the Channa marulius group (Teleostei: Channidae). Zootaxa, 4747, 13-32.

Britz, R., Sudasinghe, H. Sykes, D. & R. H. Tharindu Ranasinghe (2020). Ophichthys desilvai, a poorly known synbranchid eel from Sri Lanka (Teleostei: Synbranchidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, IEF 1139: 1-16. http://doi.org/10.23788/IEF-1139

Britz, R. & M. Kottelat (2020). Macrognathus orthosemos, a new species of spiny eel from southern Myanmar (Teleostei: Synbranchiformes: Mastacembelidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, IEF 1138: 1-7. http://doi.org/10.23788/IEF-1138

Britz, R., Hundsdörfer, A. & U. Fritz (2020). Funding, training, permits—the three big challenges of taxonomy. Megataxa, 1: 49-52.

Britz, R. (2019). Francis Hamilton’s Gangetic Fishes in Colour. A new edition of the 1822 monograph, with reproductions of unpublished coloured illustrations. Edited, with an introduction and commentary by Ralf Britz. London, The Ray Society. 696 pp.

Britz, R., Dahanukar, N., Anoop, V. K. & A. Ali (2019). Channa rara, a new species of snakehead fish from the Western Ghats region of Maharashtra, India (Teleostei: Labyrinthici: Channidae). Zootaxa, 4683: 589-600.

Anoop, V. K., Britz, R., Arjun, C. P., Dahanukar, N. & R. Raghavan (2019). Pangio bhujia, a new, peculiar species of miniature subterranean eel loach lacking dorsal and pelvic fins from India (Teleostei: Cobitidae). Zootaxa, 4683: 144-150.

Kubicek, K., Britz, R. & K. W. Conway (2019). Ontogeny of the catfish pectoral‐fin spine (Teleostei: Siluriformes). Jounal of Morphology, 280: 339-359.

Britz, R. (2019). Larval attachment organs in six species of ostariophysan teleosts. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, published on line 9 Feb 2019, DOI: 10.23788/IEF-1102

Adamson, E. A. S., Britz, R. & S. Lieng (2019). Channa auroflammea, a new species of snakehead fish of the Marulius group from the Mekong River in Laos and Cambodia (Teleostei: Channidae). Zootaxa, 4571: 398-408

Britz, R., Anoop, V. K., Dahanukar, N. & R. Raghavan (2019). Aenigmachanna gollum, a new genus and species of subterranean snakehead fish (Teleostei: Channidae) from Kerala, South India. Zootaxa, 4603: 377-388.

Adamson, E. A. S. & R. Britz (2019). The Mae Khlong Basin as the potential origin of Florida’s feral bullseye snakehead fish (Pisces: Channidae). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 67: 403-411.

Shono, T., Thiery, A. P., Cooper, R. L., Kurokawa, D., Britz, R., Okabe, M. & G. J. Fraser (2019). Evolution and developmental diversity of skin spines in pufferfishes. iScience, DOI: 10.1016/j.isci. 2019.06.003

Moritz, T. & R. Britz (2019). Revision of the extant Polypteridae (Actinopterygii: Cladistia). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 1094, 1-96. DOI: 10.23788/IEF-1094

Katwate, U., Kumkar, P. Britz, R., Raghavan, R. & N. Dahanukar (2018). The identity of Aplocheilus andamanicus (Köhler, 1906) (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes), an endemic Killifish from the Andaman Islands, with notes on Odontopsis armata van Hasselt. Zootaxa, 4382: 159-174.

Malmstrom, M., Britz, R., Matschiner, M., Torresen, O. K., Hadiaty, R. K., Yaakob, N., Tan, H. H., Jakobsen, K. S., Salzburger, W. & L. Rüber (2018) The most developmentally truncated fishes show extensive Hox gene loss and miniaturized genomes. Genome Biology and Evolution, 10: 1088-1103.

Britz, R., Anoop, V. K. & N. Dahanukar (2018). Dario neela, a new species of badid fish from the Western Ghats of India (Teleostei: Percomorpha: Badidae). Zootaxa, 4429: 141-148.

Britz, R. & H. H. Tan (2018). Rasbora simonbirchi, a new species of cyprinid fish from Central Kalimantan, Borneo. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 28: 337-344.

Conway, K. W., Perrin, O. & R. Britz (2018). Notes on egg structure and larval development in the highly miniaturised and progenetic Paedocypris (Teleostei: Cyprinidae). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 66: 394-401.

Britz, R., Sykes, D., Gower, D. J. & R. G. Kamei (2018). Monopterus rongsaw, a new species of hypogean swamp eel from the Khasi Hills in Northeast India (Teleostei: Synbranchiformes: Synbranchidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 28: 315-326.

Adamson, E. A. S. & R. Britz (2018). The snakehead fish Channa aurolineata is a valid species (Teleostei: Channidae) distinct from Channa marulius. Zootaxa, 4514: 542-552.

Conway, K. W., Kubicek, K. M. & R. Britz (2017). Morphological novelty and modest developmental truncation in Barboides, Africa’s smallest vertebrates (Teleostei: Cyprinidae). Journal of Morphology, 278: 750-767.

Thiery, A. P., Shono, T., Kurokawa, D., Britz, R., Johanson, Z. & G. J. Fraser (2017). Spatially restricted dental regeneration drives pufferfish beak development Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114: E4425-E4434

Raghavan, R., Dahanukar, N. & R. Britz (2017). The type locality of Tor mosal (Hamilton, 1822) (Teleostei: Cyprinidae). Zootaxa, 4317: 593-596.

Conte-Grand, C., Britz, R., Dahanukar, N., Raghavan, R. Pethiyagoida, R. Tan, H. H., Hadiaty, R. K., Yakoob, N. S. & L. Rüber (2017). Barcoding snakeheads (Teleostei, Channidae) revisited: Discovering greater species diversity and resolving perpetuated taxonomic confusions. PloSone, 12(9): e0184017.

Britz, R. (2017). On the identity of Mastacembelus dayi with notes on M. alboguttatus (Teleostei: Mastacembelidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 28: 75-81.

Britz, R., Adamson, E., Raghavan, R., Ali, A. & N. Dahanukar (2017) Channa pseudomarulius, a valid species of snakehead from the Western Ghats region of peninsular India (Teleostei: Channidae), with comments on Ophicephalus grandinosus, O. theophrasti and O. leucopunctatus. Zootaxa, 4299: 529-545.

Britz, R. & K. W. Conway (2016). Danionella dracula, an escape from the cypriniform Bauplan via developmental truncation? Journal of Morphology, 277: 147-166. DOI: 10.1002/jmor.20486

Britz, R. (2016). Pillaiabrachia siniae, a new species of earthworm eel from northern Myanmar (Teleostei: Synbranchiformes: Chaudhuriidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 26: 341-347.

Dahanukar, N., Raghavan, R., Ali, A. & R. Britz (2016). Amblyceps accari, a new species of torrent catfish (Teleostei: Amblycipitidae) from the Western Ghats of India. Zootaxa, 4019: 218-226.

Stevenson, D. E., Kenaley, C. P. & R. Britz (2016). Caristiidae – Manefishes. In (Carpenter, K. E. & De Angelis, N. eds.) The Living Marine Resources of the Eastern Central Atlantic, Volume 4 Bony Fishes part 2 (Perciformes to Tetraodontiformes) and Sea Turtles.  2519-2525. FAO, Rome.

Britz, R., Doherty-Bone, T. M., Kouete, M. T., Sykes, D. & D. Gower (2016). Monopterus luticolus, a new species of swamp eel from Cameroon (Teleostei: Synbranchidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 27: 309-323.

Britz, R. & K. W. Conway (2016). Danionella dracula, an escape from the cypriniform Bauplan via developmental truncation? Journal of Morphology, 277: 147-166. DOI: 10.1002/jmor.20486

Britz, R. (2016). Pillaiabrachia siniae, a new species of earthworm eel from northern Myanmar (Teleostei: Synbranchiformes: Chaudhuriidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 26: 341-347.

Dahanukar, N., Raghavan, R., Ali, A. & R. Britz (2016). Amblyceps accari, a new species of torrent catfish (Teleostei: Amblycipitidae) from the Western Ghats of India. Zootaxa, 4019: 218-226.

Stevenson, D. E., Kenaley, C. P. & R. Britz (2016). Caristiidae – Manefishes. In (Carpenter, K. E. & De Angelis, N. eds.) The Living Marine Resources of the Eastern Central Atlantic, Volume 4 Bony Fishes part 2 (Perciformes to Tetraodontiformes) and Sea Turtles.  2519-2525. FAO, Rome.

Britz, R., Doherty-Bone, T. M., Kouete, M. T., Sykes, D. & D. Gower (2016). Monopterus luticolus, a new species of swamp eel from Cameroon (Teleostei: Synbranchidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 27: 309-323.