Subterranean Fishes of the World

5695

2015

Ichthyological Contributions of PecesCriollos

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The purpose of this paper is to present an updated list of freshwater fishes found in Argentina based on the available literature. Since the last list was published in 2003, most systematical and distributional changes were presented on www.pecescriollos.de and updates have been published frequently. In only 12 years the number of species reported from Argentina has increased from 379 to 515 and the mentioned accumulative updates at the end had reached 15 pages, becoming a little bit complex and cluttered when used as supplements to the list published by López et al. (2003). After receiving several incitements we finally decided to review the available data and elaborate the present contribution. As usual in the past years already, we will continue to frequently publish updates, offering the possibility to keep updated on the species of freshwater fishes from Argentina. The increased knowledge gained during these years was published by both, Argentinean researchers and scientists from other countries. Ichthyologists from Argentina contributed in the descriptions of dozens of new species, due to their professional focus especially from Astyanax, Crenicichla, the trichomyterids, and the loricariids. Also the reporting on new first records and the elimination of erroneous records were mainly done by Argentinians. Systematical changes as synonymyzations, revalidations and transfers to other genera were dominated by non-Argentinian researchers, especially ichthyologists from Brazil and the USA. Although it can still be observed that some ichthyologists show a nowadays difficult to accept attitude when claiming exclusivity to work on certain groups which include species distributed also in Argentina, the number of papers published by international research groups including authors from Argentina has fortunately increased.

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