genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
airbreathing catfish
Airbreathing catfish comprise the family Clariidae of the order Siluriformes. Sixteen genera and about 116 species of clariid fishes are described; all are freshwater species. Other groups of catfish also breathe air, such as the Callichthyidae ...
es native to
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. However, ''H. palaeindicus'', the only known extinct species of the genus, was discovered in the
Siwalik Hills
The Sivalik Hills, also known as the Shivalik Hills and Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas that stretches over about from the Indus River eastwards close to the Brahmaputra River, spanning the northern parts of the Indian ...
,
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 ...
, dating to the Lower
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58
Depending on the exact species involved, fish of this genus reach from with ''H. longifilis'' being the largest strict freshwater fish in southern Africa, reaching SL and weighing up to .
Species
This genus contains four recent and two fossil species:
Heterobranchus longifilis
The vundu (''Heterobranchus longifilis'') is a species of large airbreathing catfish found widely in rivers and other freshwater habitats of sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the Nile. It is also called the sampa, cur, lenda, or certa.
Description ...
''
Valenciennes
Valenciennes (, also , , ; nl, label=also Dutch, Valencijn; pcd, Valincyinnes or ; la, Valentianae) is a commune in the Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France.
It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced a ...