''Megalocottus'' is a small genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Cottidae, the typical sculpins. These fishes are found in the western Pacific Ocean.

Taxonomy

''Megalocottus'' was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1861 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 ''Cottus paltycephalus'' which had been described in 1814 by Peter Simon Pallas from Kamchatka and the

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...

as its only species. 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 ...

'' classifies this genus in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Cottinae of the family Cottidae but other authorities classify it in the subfamily Myoxocephalinae of the family Psychrolutidae, although others place the subfamily Myoxocephalinae within the Cottidae.

Etymology

''Megalocottus'' prefixes ''megalo'' meaning "great" or large" with Cottus, presumed to be a reference to the large size of the type species.

Species

''Megalocottus'' currently contains two recognized: * ''

Megalocottus platycephalus The belligerent sculpin (''Megalocottus platycephalus''), or flathead sculpin, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Cottidae, the typical sculpins. This species occurs in the northern Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy The bellige ...

'' (Pallas, 1814) (Belligerent sculpin) * '' Megalocottus taeniopterus'' Kner, 1868 (Southern flathead sculpin) ''

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'' retains these two species as valid, other authorities treat the Southern flathead sculpin as a subspecies of the belligerent sculpin while others treat it as a ''M. taeniopterus'' as a

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

of ''M. platycephalus''. This taxon is a sister taxon to the genus '' Myoxocephalus''. In 2020 workers undertook a comparison of the

Mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial D ...

of the fourhorn sculpin (''Myoxocephalus quadricornis'') and the belligerent sculpin and found that the fourhorn sculpin was more closely related to the belligerent sculpin than it was to the other species in the genus ''Myoxocephalus'', they proposed that the fourhorn sculpin be reclassified as a member of the genus ''Megalocottus''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q19921645 Cottinae Taxa named by Theodore Gill Ray-finned fish genera