Psednos gulliensis

Psednos gulliensis is a species of snailfish (family Liparidae, ray-finned fishes), described in 2025. Psednos gulliensis was formally described and named in 2025 by ichthyologists Natalia V. Chernova and Nathan Lujan based on a deep-sea specimen from the Gully Marine Protected Area off Nova Scotia, Canada.^[1][2]

Psednos gulliensis is a small deep-sea fish measuring approximately 4 cm in length. Fish of the genus Psednos are often small, with a soft, compressed body adapted to deep waters. P. gulliensis exhibits distinctive morphological characteristics, including the number and arrangement of rays in the dorsal, anal, and pectoral fins, as well as the shape of the body and head, which allow it to be distinguished from closely related species.^[1] It displays unique features (43 vertebrae, 38 rays in the dorsal fin, 34 in the anal fin, 14 in the pectoral fin, including two in the notch, and a lower lobe shorter than the upper lobe; a terminal mouth inclined at 45° to the horizontal; a gill slit 1.2 times longer than the eye; and an elongated opercular bone).^[1]

The type specimen of this species was collected from the Gully Marine Protected Area, a submarine canyon located in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, off Sable Island (Nova Scotia, Canada). This protected area is one of the largest submarine canyons in the Northwest Atlantic. P. gulliensis was captured during a scientific survey in 2010, but was not formally identified as a new species until later, after the specimen was rediscovered in a laboratory collection.^[3]

The species was described by ichthyologists Natalia Vladimirovna Chernova and Nathan Lujan in 2025, based on a single specimen. The specific name gulliensis refers to the place of discovery, the Gully canyon.^[1][4]