''Centroberyx'', often referred to as nannygais, is genus of

ray-finned fishes Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or h ...

found in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

and western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, with the greatest

species richness Species richness is the number of different species represented in an ecological community, landscape or region. Species richness is simply a count of species, and it does not take into account the abundances of the species or their relative a ...

off

southern Australia The term Southern Australia is generally considered to refer to the states and territories of Australia of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia. The part of Western Australia south of lati ...

. They are reddish in colour and somewhat resemble the related

soldierfish Myripristinae is a subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank us ...

. Depending on species, they have a maximum length of . They are found at depths of . Members of this genus are also known from

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s from the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

.Fossils (Smithsonian Handbooks) by David Ward (Page 219)

Species

There are currently seven recognized

extant Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, ...

species in this genus: * '' Centroberyx affinis'' ( Günther, 1859) (Redfish) * ''

Centroberyx australis The yelloweye nannygai or yelloweye redfish (''Centroberyx australis'') is a member of the family Berycidae Berycidae is a small family of deep-sea fishes, related to the squirrelfish Holocentrinae is a subfamily of Holocentridae containin ...

'' Shimizu & Hutchins, 1987 (Yelloweye nannygai) * ''

Centroberyx druzhinini ''Centroberyx druzhinini'' is a member of the family Berycidae found in the Western Indian Ocean and Western Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Oce ...

'' (Busakhin, 1981) * '' Centroberyx gerrardi'' ( Günther, 1887) (Bight redfish) * '' Centroberyx lineatus'' (

G. Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier was a major figure in nat ...

, 1829) (Swallow-tail) * '' Centroberyx rubricaudus'' Chen-Hsiang Liu & S. C. Shen, 1985 * '' Centroberyx spinosus'' ( Gilchrist, 1903) (Short alfonsino)

References

Extant Cretaceous first appearances Marine fish genera Taxa named by Theodore Gill {{Beryciformes-stub