Pacific longnose Chimaera; Quimera narizona del Pacífico (Spanish)
(Figure 1, Table 1)
Material examined. 6 specimens. UCR 2909–02, 5 males, 1 female, 451–641 mm TL, 196–298 mm BDL; 44.95 Km, 253.73 ° T from Cabo Blanco, Puntarenas, Costa Rica (9º26'16.44" N, 85º29'56.04" W), 560–620 m, 24 November 2010, collected by J.M. Carvajal.
Diagnosis. Snout elongated and pointed; tooth-plates with ridges and knobs; eyes relatively large (EYL 7.2–9.0% BDL) and virtually above mouth; dorsal-fin spine longer than height of first dorsal-fin (DSA 1.3–1.4 times in D1H); caudal-fin axis weakly raised with the fin asymmetrical, epaxial caudal-fin lobe narrower than hypaxial lobe; upper edge of caudal fin without denticles or tubercles. Additional morphometric measurements, expressed as percentage of body length (% BDL) or head length (% HDL), and comparative data are presented in Table 1.
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Distribution. This species has an apparent fragmented distribution in the three major oceans, and is likely cosmopolitan along continental margins in sub-polar oceans (Didier et al. 2012, Eschmeyer 2014). Confirmed records exist in the eastern Atlantic (Iceland, Faeroe Islands, Rockall Trough along Ireland to northern France, Canary Islands and off Cap Blanc, Mauritania, Namibia and South Africa), western Atlantic (Nova Scotia, Canada to Chesapeake Bay, U.S.A., and southern Brazil), north Pacific (off Japan), eastern Pacific (off California, U.S.A., Mexico (Gulf of California and Central coast), Costa Rica (this study), and Peru), and southwestern Pacific (off New Zealand and Australia) (Chirichigno 1974b, Garrick & Inada 1975, van der Heiden 1985, Compagno et al. 1989, Krupp & Bussing 1995, Castro-Aguirre et al. 2007, Didier & Meckley 2009 a, Didier et al. 2012, Eschmeyer 2014). Usually encountered at depths between 500 and 2000 m (Didier & Meckley 2009 a, Didier et al. 2012).
Remarks. Although this species has a global distribution, in the eastern Pacific region there are no published records between Peru (Didier & Meckley 2009a) and Mexico (Castro-Aguirre et al. 2007). The discovery of these specimens in Costa Rican waters increases the knowledge of its marine ichthyofauna and provides evidence of a broader distributional pattern for this species in the eastern Pacific region.