Aphaniidae, the Oriental killifishes, are a family of the order Cyprinodontiformes. The 42 extant species of the family inhabit inland waters, rivers and lagoons. The distribution of these species extends from the entire Mediterranean region throughout the neighboring states of the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...

and

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...

to southwest

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Several species in this family have very small distributions and are seriously threatened.

Characteristics

Aphaniidae are small fishes that usually grow to a length of . Their bodies are moderately elongated and only slightly flattened at the sides. The mouth is short and their teeth are tricuspid. Scales are complete, but can also be reduced or completely absent. All fins are rounded, dorsal and anal fins similar and are almost symmetrical, the pelvic fins can also be very small. There is usually

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

and females are usually larger and have dots or spots on a solid colored background. The males often have horizontal stripes. There can also be significant color dimorphism within a species, due to populations that lived completely isolated from one another.

Ecology

The Aphaniidae species mostly live in small and tiny bodies of water with fresh, brackish or sea water. These can be springs, ponds, swamps, lagoons, canals or ditches. The bodies of water are often directly connected to the sea and have a high content of sulphides or

magnesium compounds Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ta ...

. Salinity and temperatures can fluctuate greatly, the latter both on an annual basis and between day and night. The fish avoid flowing water and feed on plants as well as various small animals and

detritus In biology, detritus () is dead particulate organic material, as distinguished from dissolved organic material. Detritus typically includes the bodies or fragments of bodies of dead organisms, and fecal material. Detritus typically hosts commun ...

Taxonomy and systematics

Aphanius ''Aphanius'' is a genus of pupfishes. Unlike other members of the family which are from the Americas, ''Aphanius'' species are native to northern Africa, southwestern Asia (as far east as India) and southern Europe. Several species in the genus h ...

'', the type genus of the Aphaniidae, was introduced in 1827 by the Italian naturalist

Giovanni Domenico Nardo Giovanni Domenico Nardo (4 March 1802 – 7 April 1877) was an Italian naturalist from Venice, although he spent most of his life in Chioggia, home port of the biggest fishing flotilla of the Adriatic. He learned taxidermy and specimen preparatio ...

. The American ichthyologist

Lynne R. Parenti Lynne R. Parenti (born 1954) is an American Ichthyology, ichthyologist. She serves as a Research Scientist and Curator of Fishes at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution. Her specialty is the systematics and histori ...

placed the genus together with the South American Andean killifish (''

Orestias Orestias ( el, Ὀρεστιάς) was an ancient Greek settlement next to the Maritsa (or Evros) river, near or at the site of present-day Edirne, and close to the current border between Turkey and Greece. Legends claim that Orestias was founded ...

'') within the family Cyprinodontidae in the tribe Orestini. Because of the

polyphyly A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of converg ...

of the Cyprinodontidae, the genus was transferred to an independent family, the Aphaniidae, in mid-2017 by the German ichthyologist Jörg Freyhof and two Turkish colleagues. The name was first mentioned in a dissertation in 1960. With the introduction of the genus '' Paraphanius'' and the revalidation of '' Aphaniops'' in April 2020, the family is no longer monotypic. In mid-2020s, two more genera were newly introduced and three genera were revalidated, so that the Aphaniidae now consists of eight genera :

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q93873769 Cyprinodontiformes Ray-finned fish families