Shedding light on the Chimaeridae taxonomy: the complete mitochondrial genome of the cartilaginous fish Hydrolagus mirabilis (Collett, 1904) (Holocephali: Chimaeridae)

Abstract

Cartilaginous fish are fascinating taxa, present in the folklore and art of many different cultures. Moreover, they display several unique anatomical, physiological, molecular, and behavioral characteristics making them extremely interesting from a biological perspective. Nevertheless, some crucial knowledge gaps remain, including phylogenetic relationships among extant species. Here, we produced the complete mitogenome sequence of the large-eyed rabbitfish, Hydrolagus mirabilis (Chimaeriformes). The complete mitogenome is 19,435 bp long and shows the same overall content, i.e. 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA, and two ribosomal RNA genes, as all other examined Chondrichthyan mitogenomes. Phylogenetic reconstructions including 12 Holocephalan and three outgroup Elasmobranch mitogenomes place the H. mirabilis within the family Chimaeridae but revealed paraphyletic Hydrolagus and Chimaera, in line with a previous study, highlighting the importance for collecting additional molecular data to improve phylogenetic reconstruction in this group of vertebrates.