Occurrence of Apristurus species in the Galicia Bank Seamount (NE Atlantic) By C. Rodr  ıguez-Cabello 1 , M. P erez 2 and R. Ba~ non 3 1 Instituto Espa ~ nol de Oceanograf  ıa, Santander, Spain; 2 Instituto Espa ~ nol de Oceanograf  ıa, Vigo, Spain; 3 Servizo de Planificaci  on, Conseller  ıa do Mar e Medio Rural, Xunta de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela, Spain Summary The aim of this study was to identify some of the Apristurus species by combining morphometric and genetic tools. Sev- eral specimens of the genus Apristurus were caught on the Galicia Bank Seamount (NE Atlantic), between 1460 and 1809 m depths, during a multidisciplinary survey carried out in 2011 within the framework of the INDEMARES Project. Morphometric and genetic analyses were conducted to aid the identification of the specimens collected. A total of 20 specimens were identified, of which 18 corresponded to Apri- sturus aphyodes (Nakaya and Stehmann, 1998), one to A. profundorum (Goode and Bean, 1896) and one to A. mela- noasper Iglesias, Nakaya & Stehmann, 2004. Genetic results based on the mtDNA COI sequences (682–690 bp fragment of the COI gene) support the identification of A. profundo- rum and A. melanoasper, with a bootstrap of 99 and 96%, respectively. The identification of A. aphyodes was also per- formed using a 499 bp fragment of the 16S mitochondrial gene. These are the first records of the Apristurus species from Galician waters, which extends their known area of dis- tribution and provides more information on different biologi- cal and ecological aspects of this complex taxonomic group. Introduction The genus Apristurus (Garman, 1913) is one of the largest genera of living catsharks, with 37 species currently recogni- sed as valid, and 55 nominal species (Froese and Pauly, 2011). It previously belonged to the family Scyliorhinidae, but was recently included in the family Pentanchidae, based on molecular and morphological phylogenetic studies that showed the family Scyliorhinidae to be paraphyletic (Maisey, 1984; Winchell et al., 2004; Igl  esias et al., 2005). The resur- rected family Pentachidae differs from the Scyliorhinidae by the absence of supraorbital crests on the chondocranium (Compagno, 1988; Igl esias et al., 2005). Apristurus species inhabit the continental slopes and sub- marine elevations at depths of 400–2,000 m in all marine waters, except for the polar regions (Compagno, 1984; Ebert and Stehmann, 2013). The Pacific Ocean accounts for the greatest number of species (n = 24), followed by the Atlantic (n = 10) and Indian oceans (n = 4). One of these species, A. australis Sato, Nakaya & Yorozu, 2008 occurs in the Indian and Pacific coasts. Six species of Apristurus are known from the North Atlantic, i.e. A. laurussonii (Saemundsson, 1922) (= A. maderensis Cadenat & Maul, 1966; = A. atlanticus (Koefoed, 1927), A. microps (Gilchrist, 1922), A. manis (Springer, 1979), A. aphyodes Nakaya and Stehmann, 1998 (= A. atlanticus Compagno, 1984), A. prof- undorum (Goode and Bean, 1896) and A. melanoasper Igl esias et al. (2004). In Galician waters, catsharks are repre- sented by five species (Galeus atlanticus, G. melastomus, G. murinus, Scyliorhinus canicula and S. stellaris), none of them from the genus Apristurus (Ba~ n on et al., 2010). However, only G. murinus has been caught on the Galicia Bank Seamount; the four other species were found on the continental shelf and slope. The genus Apristurus is considered to be one of the most diverse and taxonomically confusing genera among living sharks, in part due to the large number of poorly known spe- cies (Nakaya et al., 2008a). Taxonomic revisions of Apristurus have been previously carried out (Springer, 1979; Nakaya, 1991; Nakaya and Sato, 1998, 1999; Igl esias et al., 2005). Despite these revisions, taxonomic confusion still exists because many species are homogeneous in morphology and pertinent material is lacking (Igl  esias and Nakaya, 2004). Galicia Bank (GB) is a large seamount located 120 miles offshore from the west coast of Galicia (North Spain). The crest of the bank is at 600 m depth and reaches 4,000 m on its deepest side, and has a length of 50 km in the E–W direc- tion and 90 km in the N–S axis (Fig. 1). This region com- prises part of an Environment Ministry (2004) proposal for an inventory of the biodiversity in the Spanish seas through the identification of valuable areas for the Natura 2000 Net- work. The surveys last conducted in this area within this framework contributed to adding to the number of species that inhabit these waters and confirmed the high biodiversity in the Galicia Bank. Although only scattered records have been published to date in this area (Ba~ n on et al., 2011; San- ju an et al., 2012), an indepth list of the fish fauna found in the Galician Bank is now being processed. Information on elasmobranch species in the Galicia Bank has been limited. Pi ~ neiro et al. (2001) reported 11 sharks for this area based on experimental and commercial surveys, although the scientific name were provided for only six of the species. Biological and taxonomic studies of other deep- water sharks, mainly belonging to the family Centrophori- dae, were also carried out (Casas et al., 2001; Ba~ n on et al., 2008). J. Appl. Ichthyol. (2014), 1–10 © 2014 Blackwell Verlag GmbH ISSN 0175–8659 Received: October 29, 2013 Accepted: February 6, 2014 doi: 10.1111/jai.12480 Applied Ichthyology Journal of