Palauan primitive cave eel

Protanguilla palau

Seventeen Point Six Centimeters Eel from the Pacific Ocean

Palauan primitive cave eel is known from Western Pacific as a marine fish. It occurs in marine waters.

Class: Teleosts
Order: True Eels
Family: Protanguillidae
Genus: Protanguilla
Maximum length: 17.6 cm
Water: Marine
Body shape: anguilliform
Distribution: Western Pacific: Republic of Palau. Presently known from a western fringing reef of Ngemelis Island, in a reef cave at 35 m depth. As an elopomorph, it almost certainly has a leptocephalus larval form, and letptocephali (particularly those of anguilliforms) are known to have long planktonic durations (2-10 months). Accordingly, the authors believe that Protoanguilla probably has a considerably broader distribution than currently known, even though no leptocephali matching its unique meristic formula (fewer than 90 vertebrae, more than 170 dorsal fin and anal fin rays) have been identified in extensive worldwide larval fish collections. In any case, historically, the Protoanguilla lineage, estimated to have diverged ca 200Ma, must have been much more widely distributed, because the Palau-Ky
Conservation status: DDData Deficient

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