Variations in microbial community compositions and processes imposed under contrast geochemical contexts in Sicilian mud volcanoes, Italy.

Terrestrial mud volcanoes represent surface features of channels for subsurface methane transport and, therefore, constitute an important source of methane emission from natural environments. How microbial processes regulate methane emissions in terrestrial mud volcanoes has yet to be fully addressed. This study demonstrated the geochemical characteristics and microbial communities of four mud volcano and seep sites in two geological settings of Sicily, Italy.

Rhodopsin gene evolution in early teleost fishes.

Rhodopsin mediates an essential step in image capture and is tightly associated with visual adaptations of aquatic organisms, especially species that live in dim light environments (e.g., the deep sea).

First record of Gauguin's blunt-nose lizardfish, Trachinocephalus gauguini Polanco, Acero Betancur 2016 (Teleostei: Synodontidae) outside the Marquesas Archipelago.

Trachinocephalus gauguini Polanco, Acero Betancur, 2016 was described based on eighteen specimens collected from off the Marquesas Islands, the only location where this species has been recorded until now. Through morphological and molecular examination of Trachinocephalus specimens collected from an exploratory cruise conducted in June 2014 under the Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos program along the northern coast of the New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea, we demonstrate the presence of this species in Papua New Guinea waters. This new record suggests a wide distribution for this rarely collected species in the western Pacific Ocean.

New case of lateral asymmetry in fishes: A new subfamily, genus and species of deep water clingfishes from Papua New Guinea, western Pacific Ocean.

The unusual clingfish Protogobiesox asymmetricus n. gen, n. sp.

Phylogeny of the Elopomorpha (Teleostei): evidence from six nuclear and mitochondrial markers.

The Elopomorpha (eels and relatives) is a morphologically diverse group of predominantly marine teleost fishes comprising about 1000 species placed in 25 families. It is one of the three major living teleost lineages along with the Osteoglossomorpha and Clupeocephala. Among a few morphological synapomorphies that have been offered as evidence for the monophyly of the Elopomorpha, the remarkable leptocephalus larvae stand out.