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Gymnocanthus

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Gymnocanthus
Arctic staghorn sculpin (G. tricuspis)
G. detrisus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Cottidae
Subfamily: Cottinae
Genus: Gymnocanthus
Swainson, 1839
Type species
Cottus ventralis
Cuvier, 1829
Synonyms[1]

Gymnocanthus is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Cottidae, the typical sculpins. These fishes are found in the northern Pacific, Arctic and northern Atlantic Oceans.

Taxonomy

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Gymnocanthus was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1839 by the English zoologist William John Swainson with Cottus ventralis, which had been described in 1829 by the French zoologist Georges Cuvier from Kamchatka, as its only species.[1][2] Cottus ventralis was later shown to be a synonym of Cottus pistilliger, a species which Peter Simon Pallas had described in 1814 from Alaska.[2]The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies this genus within the subfamily Cottinae of the family Cottidae,[3] however, other authors classify the genus within the subfamily Icelinae of the family Psychrolutidae.[1]

Etymology

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Gymnocanthus is a combination of gymnos, meaning "bare" or "naked", and acanthus, which means "thorn" or "spine", Swainson did not explain what this alluded to. It may refer to the head of the type species, which was described as scaleless, although it is actually covered or partially covered with large plates, and which has “few” spines, or it may be a reference to the scaleless preopercular spine and cusps.[4]

Species

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Gymnocanthus has seven recognized species in this genus, of these five are native to the northern Pacific Ocean, whereas one lives in arctic waters adjacent to the Atlantic, and one in the central Atlantic:[5]

References

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  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Icelinae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Gymnocanthus". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  3. ^ J. S. Nelson; T. C. Grande; M. V. H. Wilson (2016). Fishes of the World (5th ed.). Wiley. pp. 467–495. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6. Archived from the original on 2019-04-08. Retrieved 2023-01-24.
  4. ^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara, eds. (22 October 2022). "Order Perciformes: Suborder Cottoidea: Infraorder Cottales: Family Cottidae (Sculpins)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  5. ^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Gymnocanthus". FishBase. December 2012 version.