Schizothorax

Schizothorax
Schizothorax from Ghori River in Pithoragarh District (India); probably S. plagiostomus or S. richardsonii
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass: Osteichthyes
Class: Actinopterygii
Subclass: Neopterygii
Infraclass: Teleostei
Superorder: Ostariophysi
Order: Cypriniformes
Superfamily: Cyprinioidea
Family: Cyprinidae
Subfamily: Barbinae
Genus: Schizothorax
Heckel, 1838
Type species
Schizothorax plagiostomus
Heckel, 1838
Diversity
About 60 species

Schizothorax is a genus of cyprinid fish from Central and East Asia. Their scientific name means "cloven-breast", from Ancient Greek schízeïn (σχίζειν) "to cleave" + thórax (θώραξ) "breast-plate" (see also thorax). The western species are typically referred to as marinkas from their Russian name marinka (маринка; plural: маринки marinki), while the eastern species are usually called "snowtrouts". But though they do resemble trouts in habitus this is merely due to convergent evolution and they are by no means closely related apart from both being Teleostei: Cyprinids are in the teleost superorder Ostariophysi, while trouts are in the superorder Protacanthopterygii. Their ancestors must thus have diverged as early as the Triassic, more than 200 million years ago.

Other "snowtrouts" – most if not all presumably closely related to Schizothorax – are found in the genera Diptychus, Ptychobarbus, Schizopyge and Schizopygopsis. The latter two were formerly often included in the present genus, and their delimitation is still not entirely clear. In any case, the genus Schizothorax (and other "snowtrouts") are in turn related to such cyprinids as the typical barbels (Barbus sensu stricto and the doubtfully distinct Luciobarbus and Messinobarbus), Carasobarbus, Labeobarbus (yellowfish), Aulopyge (Dalmatian Barbelgudgeon), and Cyprinion. They were thus placed in the subfamily Barbinae, which is quite paraphyletic however and thus here merged with the Cyprininae at least for the largest part (including the marinkas), becoming its junior synonym in the process.[1]

Species

There are currently 63 recognized species in this genus:[2][3]

References

  1. ↑ de Graaf, Martin; Megens, Hendrik-Jan; Samallo, Johannis; Sibbing, Ferdinand A. (2007). "Evolutionary origin of Lake Tana's (Ethiopia) small Barbus species: indications of rapid ecological divergence and speciation". Animal Biology 57 (1): 39–48. doi:10.1163/157075607780002069.
  2. ↑ Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2013). Species of Schizothorax in FishBase. June 2013 version.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Yang, J., Zheng, L.-P., Chen, X.-Y. & Yang, J.-X. (2013): Description of two new species and revision of Schizothorax distributed in the Irrawaddy drainage area in China. Zoological Research, 34 (4): 361-367. (In Chinese with English abstract)
  4. ↑ Javed, M.N., Azizullah & Pervaiz, K. (2012): Racoma ramzani, A New Snow Carp (Teleostei: Cyprinidae: Schizothoracinae) From Pakistan. Biologia (Pakistan), 58 (1&2): 175-178.