Chalceidae, the tucanfishes, is a family of freshwater fish first described by

Henry Weed Fowler Henry Weed Fowler (March 23, 1878 – June 21, 1965) was an American zoologist born in Holmesburg, Pennsylvania. He studied at Stanford University under David Starr Jordan. He joined the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and worked as ...

in the year 1958. It is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

family, home only to the genus ''

incertae sedis ' () or ''problematica'' is a term used for a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

'' ''

Chalceus ''Chalceus'' is a genus of fish that inhabits freshwater habitats in South America. Members can be found in the Amazon and Orinoco basins, as well as in the Guianas and various tributaries of the former. It is the sole representative of the fam ...

''. All members of the family inhabit areas of northern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, including the

Amazon River The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile. The headwaters of t ...

and various tributaries.

Classification

Chalceidae is in the order

Characiformes Characiformes is an order of ray-finned fish, comprising the characins and their allies. Grouped in 18 recognized families, more than 2000 different species are described, including the well-known piranha and tetras.; Buckup P.A.: "Relationshi ...

. The genus ''Chalceus'' used to be placed in the family

Characidae Characidae, the characids or characins is a family of freshwater subtropical and tropical fish, belonging to the order Characiformes. The name "characins" is the historical one, but scientists today tend to prefer "characids" to reflect their st ...

, and is still listed there by several sources (like

GBIF The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international organisation that focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available via the Internet using web services. The data are provided by many institutions from around the ...

and

ITIS The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) is an American partnership of federal agencies designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy of biological species. ITIS was originally formed in 1996 as an interagenc ...

). Research since its original placement suggested movement into the family Chalceidae, based upon

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

significance as a monophyletic group.Oliveira, C., Avelino, G.S., Abe, K.T., Mariguela, T.C., Benine, R.C., Orti, G., Vari, R.P., & Correa e Castro, R.M. (2011)
Phylogenetic relationships within the speciose family Characidae (Teleostei: Ostariophysi: Characiformes) based on multilocus analysis and extensive ingroup sampling.
''BMC Evolutionary Biology, 11: 275. doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-11-275'' Morphological features further support this move. This was also done in order to keep the family Characidae monophyletic. Currently, only ''Chalceus'' is classified in Chalceidae. Because ''Chalceus'' is a genus with five extant species, Chalceidae has five extant species by extension. In alphabetical order, they are: * ''

Chalceus epakros ''Chalceus epakros'' is a species of freshwater fish in the family Chalceidae, found in northern South America. It is a fairly recent addition to its genus, alongside the species '' C. guaporensis'' and '' C. spilogyros''. Description ''Chalce ...

'' Zanata & Toledo-Piza, 2004 * ''

Chalceus erythrurus The tucan fish (''Chalceus erythrurus''), also called the yellowfin chalceus, is a species of freshwater fish in the family Chalceidae. It is one of five species in the genus ''Chalceus'', and was the second species to be described therein. D ...

Cope The cope (known in Latin as ''pluviale'' 'rain coat' or ''cappa'' 'cape') is a liturgical vestment, more precisely a long mantle or cloak, open in front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp. It may be of any liturgical colours, litu ...

, 1870 (tucan fish) * ''

Chalceus guaporensis ''Chalceus guaporensis'' is a species of freshwater fish in the family Chalceidae that inhabits northern South America. Alongside '' C. epakros'' and '' C. spilogyros'', it was added to the genus ''Chalceus'' in the year 2004. Description Visu ...

'' Zanata & Toledo-Piza, 2004 * ''

Chalceus macrolepidotus The pinktail chalceus (''Chalceus macrolepidotus''),U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Pinktail Chalceus (Chalceus macrolepidotus) Ecological Risk Screening Summary'. 2018. also called the pinktail characin, is a species of freshwater fish of the fa ...

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 ...

, 1818 (pinktail chalceus) * ''

Chalceus spilogyros ''Chalceus spilogyros'', sometimes misspelled as ''Chalceus spilogyrus'', is a species of freshwater fish in the family Chalceidae that inhabits northern South America. It is a relatively new member of the genus ''Chalceus'', along with '' C. epa ...

'' Zanata & Toledo-Piza, 2004

History

Chalceidae was first described in 1958 by Henry Weed Fowler as Chalceidi. It has also been described as Plethodectidi by the same; this is because ''Plethodectes erythrurus'' (

, 1870) used to be the sole representative, a name now synonymized with ''Chalceus erythrurus''. Therefore, the family Plethodectidi became defunct alongside the genus ''Plethodectes'' (in the context of describing species of ''Chalceus'').

Etymology

"Tucanfish" directly translates to "toucan fish", because "tucán" means

toucan Toucans (, ) are members of the Neotropical near passerine bird family Ramphastidae. The Ramphastidae are most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five ge ...

in Spanish. The species ''C. erythrurus'' shares a name with the family it belongs to - it is also commonly called the tucan fish. The sole genus of Chalceidae, ''Chalceus'', gives the family its name and therefore its etymological root. Said root is the Greek word chalkos, which means copper; this is in reference to the original description of ''C. macrolepidotus'', wherein

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

reported that its scales were "sometimes golden" when preserved in alcohol.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20722397 Taxa named by Henry Weed Fowler Fish described in 1958 Fish of South America Ray-finned fish families Monogeneric fish families