''Atractoscion'' is a
genus of marine
ray-finned fished belonging to the
family Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. The fishes in this genus are found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Taxonomy
''Atractoscion'' was first proposed as a
monospecific genus in 1862 by the American
biologist
A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize in ...
Theodore Gill with ''Otolithus aequidens'', a species
described in 1830 by
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 ...
from the
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
,
designated as its
type species.
[ This genus is classified in the family Sciaenidae which is placed within the ]suborder
Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...
Sciaenoidei of the order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
* Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...
Acanthuriformes
Acanthuriformes is an order of ray-finned fishes, part of the Percomorpha clade. Some authorities place the fishes in the order within the Acanthuriformes in the suborders Acanthuroidea and Percoidea of the order Perciformes.
Classification
The ...
in the 5th edition of ''Fishes of the World
''Fishes of the World'' by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011) is a standard reference for fish systematics. Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of the diversity and classification of the ...
''.
Etymology
''Atractoscion'' is a combination of ''atracto'', which means "spindle", an allusion Gill did not explain, but it mau have referred to the more cylindrical body shape of this genus in comparison to the typical members of the Sciaenidae, with ''scion'', the modern Greek name of ''Umbrina cirrosa
''Umbrina cirrosa'', the shi drum, is a species of marine fish from the warmer waters of the eastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. It is a commercially important species which is trawled for and farmed in aquaculture, as w ...
'', Gill preferring this over “sciaena” because he considered that it sounded better.
Species
There are currently 5 recognized species in this genus:[
* '' Atractoscion macrolepis'' Y. S. Song, J. K. Kim, J. H. Kang & S. Y. Kim, 2017 (Large scale lunate caudal fin croaker) ][
* ''Atractoscion nobilis'' (William Orville Ayres">Ayres, 1860) (White weakfish)
]
Characteristics
''Atractoscion'' fishes are characterised by having elongate fusiform, compressed bodies with an oval cross-section. They have moderately sized eyes. The slightly oblique mout opens at the front and has a slightly protruding lower jaw. There are no barbels or pores on the chin and the preoperculum has a smooth margin. They have a raised ridge along the centre of their bellies. The dorsal fin has a long base with a deep incision separating the spined and soft-rayed portions of the fin and it has 10 or 11 spines and between 21 and 23 soft rays. The anal fin
Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...
has 2 thin, short spines and 9 or 10 soft rays. They have short pelvic and pectoral fins. They have small, rough scales apart from around the eyes where the scales are smooth. There are no scales in the fins. [ The largest species in the genus is the white seabass (''A. nobilis'') which has a maximum published total length of .][
]
Distribution and habitat
''Atractoscion'' croakers are found in the south eastern Atlantic, southwestern Indian, northern Indian, western and eastern Pacific Oceans. These are coastal fishes often found in estuaries.[
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q136749
Sciaenidae
Taxa named by Theodore Gill
Ray-finned fish genera