Anguilla obscura Günther, 1872
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The Pacific shortfinned eel (Anguilla obscura), also known as the Pacific shortfinned freshwater eel, the short-finned eel, and the South Pacific eel, is an eel in the family Anguillidae. It was described by Albert Günther in 1871. It is a tropical, freshwater eel which is known from western New Guinea, Queensland, Australia, the Society Islands, and possibly South Africa. The eels spend most of their lives in freshwater, but migrate to the Pacific Ocean to breed. Males can reach a maximum total length of 110 centimetres, but more commonly reach a TL of around 60 cm. The Pacific shortfinned eel is most similar to Anguilla australis (more commonly known as the Short-finned eel), and Anguilla bicolor (the Indonesian shortfin eel), but can be distinguished by the number of vertebrae.
The Pacific shortfinned eel feeds primarily off of bony fish (including the genus Oreochromis), crustaceans and mollusks. It is a commercial eel in subsistence fisheries.
Wikipedia contributors, Pacific shortfinned eel; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T19:01:13.915613+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Anguilla obscura Günther, 1872
- Name authority
- Günther, 1872
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Anguilliformes
- Family
- Anguillidae
- Genus
- Anguilla
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: yes · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderAnguilliformes
- familyAnguillidae Rafinesque, 1810
- genusAnguilla Schrank, 1798
- speciesAnguilla obscura Günther, 1872
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Anguilla. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Anguilla celebesensis Kaup, 1856 | AnguillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Anguilla labiata (Peters, 1852) | AnguillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Anguilla luzonensis Watanabe, Aoyama & Tsukamoto, 2009 | AnguillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Anguilla bicolor McClelland, 1844 | AnguillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Anguilla malgumora Kaup, 1856 | AnguillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Anguilla borneensis Popta, 1924 | AnguillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Japanese eelAnguilla japonica Temminck & Schlegel, 1846 | AnguillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| European eelAnguilla anguilla (Linnaeus, 1758) | AnguillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Anguilla reinhardtii Steindachner, 1867 | AnguillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Anguilla interioris Whitley, 1938 | AnguillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| giant mottled eelAnguilla marmorata Quoy & Gaimard, 1824 | AnguillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Anguilla megastoma Kaup, 1856 | AnguillidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- Günther, A. (1872). Report on several collections of fishes recently obtained for the British Museum. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1871, (pt 3) (art. 1) : 652–675, Pls. 53–70. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:5V373. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.