Scientists have described a new species of Grayling from the Amur River.
The new fish, which has been named Thymallus tugarinae in a paper in the Journal of Ichthyology, was discovered in the lower and middle reaches of the Amur River.
The Amur River originates in the mountains of northeastern China and flows through Russia and China, with a mouth in the Pacific Ocean.
The species was previously believed to be a form of the Amur grayling, Thymallus grubii, a fish described by Dybowski in 1869 from the River Onon and River Ingoda in the upper Amur River basin.
Experts from Irkutsk State University, the Russian Academy of Science, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk State University and Karl-Franzens Universitt Graz, said that Thymallus tugarinae had distinctive colouration, a characteristic pattern on the fins and other morphological characters that set it apart from other grayling.
Molecular work also backs up the split by confirming that the species is distinct.
Thymallus tugarinae lives alongside T. grubii and T. burejensis in the Bureya River.
A related dwarf grayling was described last year from Lake Baikal.
For more information see the paper: New species of grayling Thymallus tugarinae sp. nova (Thymallidae) from the Amur River Basin. Journal of Ichthyology, Volume 47, Number 2 / March, 2007.