Owstonia aurora Liao, Reyes & Shao 2022
In a new publication, ichthyologists from Taiwan and the Philippines, described a new species of bandfish, Owstonia aurora Liao, Reyes & Shao 2022. The specimens used to describe the species were collected east of Aurora province in Northern Luzon at depths of over 300 meters during the Aurora 2007 expedition. This species is the second bandfish species that is new to science, found in the collection of the expedition. The authors include Q-quatics Research Associate Rodolfo Reyes Jr. “Rudy”, Dr. Yun-Chi Liao of the Department of Earth and Life Science, University of Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. and long-time FishBase collaborator Dr. Kwang-Tsao Shao of the Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Participants of the Aurora 2007 Expedition on the research vessel MV DA-BFAR in June 2007
“The waters off the eastern seaboard of northern Philippines is, as yet, not well-explored by scientists simply because of its remoteness. It would not be surprising to find many species that are new to science in those waters. My co-authors and I are convinced that there are more species waiting to be described in what we have collected, in addition to the two bandfish species that we have so far described [Owstonia Sarmiento Liao, Reyes & Shao 2009 and Owstonia aurora Liao, Reyes and Shao 2022],” Rudy said.
The new species has been entered in FishBase and a copy of the publication can be downloaded from Zootaxa.
