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DoNascimiento et al. 2025 (3)

Magdalenichthys mompox is a newly described genus of heptapterid catfishes endemic to Colombia’s Magdalena River basin. It was formally described on 8 July 2025 in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, alongside three congeneric species (M. lundbergi, M. poira, and M. yariguies) based on specimens long overlooked in ichthyological collections. Habitat: This species has a patchy distribution in three disjunct areas of the Magdalena basin, the lower course of the main channel of the Cauca River, the Río Ariguaní, a tributary of the lower basin of the Río Cesar, and in the Río Tetuan, a tributary of the Río Saldaña that drains directly in the upper basin of the Magdalena River. It is expected that this distribution pattern simply reflects an artifact of sampling. Etymology: The genus name Magdalenichthys: In allusion to the Magdalena River basin, remarking on the restricted geographic distribution of this heptapterid genus to the Cauca and Magdalena rivers, which together form the main hydrographic basin of the trans-Andean region of Colombia, framed by the Western, Central, and Eastern cordilleras, the most salient feature of the Colombian geomorphology. Gender masculine. The species name mompox: Refers to the Cacique Mompoj of the Malibú tribe that once inhabited the region today corresponding to the municipality of Santa Cruz de Mompox, within the so-called Momposina Depression. This indigenous group was exterminated by the Spanish armies of Gerónimo Lebrón and Alonso Martín, during the Cesar massacre of 1540. Used as a noun in apposition. (DoNascimiento et al. 2025).

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Heptapteridae

South America: Colombia, Magdalena River basin. Type locality: Colombia, Antioquia, Cáceres, Cauca River 07°41’12”N 75°16’30”W.

4.0cm. (1¾ins)

23-25°C (73-77°F)

6.0-7.2.

Carlos DoNascimiento, Francisco Antonio Villa-Navarro, Juan G Albornoz-Garzón, Cristhian C Conde-Saldaña, Gabriel S C Silva, Alejandro Méndez-López, Fábio F Roxo, Armando Ortega-Lara, Claudio Oliveira, An unexpectedly diverse new genus of catfishes (Siluriformes, Heptapteridae) endemic to the Magdalena River basin, Colombia, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 204, Issue 3, July 2025, zlaf048.