Jaonalison H. auteur aut IRD Durand Jean-Dominique auteur aut IRD Mahafina J. auteur aut IRD Valade P. auteur aut IRD Collet A. auteur aut IRD Cerqueira F. auteur aut IRD Ponton Dominique auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf reformatted digital access Madagascar is a marine biodiversity hotspot. A recent checklist recorded 1689 marine or transitional water fish species, 2.5% being endemic. To date, studies in this country were mostly focused on adult fishes using morphological-based identification. The early life stages of fishes remain largely understudied. The present work aimed to improve knowledge of fish biodiversity in Madagascar by focusing on post-larval reef fishes and settled juveniles in seagrass meadows of southwest Madagascar by using either species identification keys or DNA barcoding. Up to 119,500 individuals were collected, and 1096 individuals were successfully barcoded. We identified 387 species-85 through their morphology (with 58 unsuccessfully sequenced) and 302 by using CO1 barcoding corresponding to 302 barcode index numbers (BINs). This study added 27 new BINs for the BOLD database, 120 new for Madagascar, but only 159 were assigned a precise species name. By referring to the updated checklist of Madagascar fishes, 10 new species were detected for Madagascar. This number will probably increase when all the barcoded specimens become assigned to precise species names. These preliminary findings stress our poor knowledge of marine fish biodiversity in Madagascar and demonstrate the relevance of DNA barcoding in improving this knowledge. specialized molecular tool fish post-larvae fish juvenile coastal habitat marine biodiversity MADAGASCAR TOLIARA OCEAN INDIEN ZONE TROPICALE 034 14 5 377 [13 ] 2022 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010085201 10.3390/d14050377 [F B010085201] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010085201 https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/2022-07/010085201.pdf IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2022-07-01 2025-11-18 fdi:010085201 fre