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Abstract
Is there only one electric eel species? For two and a half centuries since its description by Linnaeus, Electrophorus electricus has captivated humankind by its capacity to generate strong electric discharges. Despite the importance of Electrophorus in multiple fields of science, the possibility of additional species-level diversity in the genus, which could also reveal a hidden variety of substances and bioelectrogenic functions, has hitherto not been explored. Here, based on overwhelming patterns of genetic, morphological, and ecological data, we reject the hypothesis of a single species broadly distributed throughout Greater Amazonia. Our analyses readily identify three major lineages that diverged during the Miocene and Pliocene—two of which warrant recognition as new species. For one of the new species, we recorded a discharge of 860 V, well above 650 V previously cited for Electrophorus, making it the strongest living bioelectricity generator.
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1 Division of Fishes, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, MCR 159, National Museum of Natural History, PO Box 37012, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, WA, USA
2 Department of Biology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA
3 Division of Fishes, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, MCR 159, National Museum of Natural History, PO Box 37012, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, WA, USA; Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
4 Laboratório de Ecologia e Conservação, Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Belém, Pará, Brazil; Laboratório de ecologia de peixes, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerias, Institudo de Ciências Biológicas, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
5 Department of Ichthyology, The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
6 Muséum d’histoire naturelle, Département d’herpétologie et d’ichtyologie, Genève 6, Switzerland
7 Laboratório de Lepidopterologia e Ictiologia Integrada, Centro de Estudos Avançados da Biodiversidade, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil
8 Coordenação de Biodiversidade, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil
9 RESEX do Rio Cajari, Instituto Chico Mendes da Conservação da Biodiversidade, Macapá, Amapá, Brazil
10 Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Laboratório de Ictiologia, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia de Vertebrados, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
11 Anton de Kom University of Suriname, Paramaribo, Suriname
12 Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Laboratório de Ictiologia, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Laboratório de Ciências Ambientais, Universidade Federal de Rondônia, Presidente Médice, Rondônia, Brazil
13 Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, Pará, Brazil
14 Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Laboratório de Ictiologia, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
15 Laboratório de Citogenética, Centro de Estudos Avançados da Biodiversidade, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Pará, Brazil
16 Laboratório de Ictiologia, Faculdade de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Pará, Brazil
17 Laboratório de Ecologia e Conservação, Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Belém, Pará, Brazil
18 Instituto de Ciências e Tecnologia das Águas, Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará, Campus Amazônia, Pará, Brazil
19 Universidade Federal do Maranhão, Departamento de Biologia, Laboratório de Ecologia e Sistemática de Peixes, São Luis, Maranhão, Brazil