David Muirhead took this photo of a male Bluefin Leatherjacket, Thamnaconus degeni, at the Noarlunga Tyre Reef: –

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Photo of a male Bluefin Leatherjacket, Thamnaconus degeni

(Taken by David Muirhead at the Noarlunga Tyre Reef)

The leatherjacket was named by a Mr C Tate Regan in 1902 (or 1903). He named it Pseudomonacanthus degeni at the time. It later became Thamnaconus degeni CAAB Code:37465037).

So Thamnaconus degeni is now the accepted  name for the species, whilst Pseudomonacanthus degeni is a synonym for the species. There are no other synonyms for the species.
Details can be found at http://fishbase.org/References/FBRefSummary.php?ID=9563 (May J.L. and J.G.H. Maxwell, 1986. Trawl fish from temperate waters of Australia. CSIRO Division of Fisheries Research, Tasmania. 492 p.)
Regan named the leatherjacket after a Mr Degen, who apparently provided him with a single specimen from the Melbourne Market, along with a drawing showing the actual colours of the specimen when it was fresh. (This information is taken from the “Proceedings of the Zoological Society” (1902), “On the classification of the Fishes of Suborder Plectognathi; with notes and descriptions of the new species from specimens in the British Museum Collection” (Mr C Tate Regan on Plectognathus Fishes), pages 284-299. See either http://biostor.org/reference/99961 or https://archive.org/download/biostor-99961/biostor-99961.pdf .)

By Steve Reynolds

Steve Reynolds is the current President of MLSSA and is a long-standing member of the Society. Steve is a keen diver, underwater explorer, photographer and is chief author of the Society's extensive back catalogue of newsletters and journals.

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