family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of
catfish
Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...
es. These Asian catfishes live in fast-moving waters and often have adaptations that allow them to adhere to objects in their habitats. The family includes about 235 species.
Taxonomy
The family Sisoridae is recognized as a natural,
monophyletic
In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gr ...
group based on morphological and molecular evidence. It is divided into two subfamilies, Sisorinae and Glyptosterninae (glyptosternoids). The Sisorinae contain the five genera ''
Bagarius
''Bagarius'' ( th, ปลาแค้) is an Asian genus of catfishes (order Siluriformes) of the family Sisoridae. It includes five to six extant species and potentially one extinct fossil species, '' B. gigas''.
Species
There are currently fi ...
Myersglanis
''Myersglanis'' is a genus of sisorid catfishes native to Asia.
Species
There are currently two recognized species in this genus:
* ''Myersglanis blythii'' (Francis Day, F. Day, 1870) (Stone cat)
* ''Myersglanis jayarami'' Waikhom Vishwanath, Vi ...
monophyly
In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...
of the entire family and the tribe Glyptosterninae are well supported by osteological morphology and molecular data.
In the genera ''Glyptothorax'' (tribe Glyptothoracini) and ''Pseudecheneis'' (tribe Pseudecheneidina), the species have thoracic adhesive apparatuses to attach to objects in the stream bed; in ''Glyptothorax'', grooves of this apparatus run parallel or oblique to the axis of the body, while in ''Pseudecheneis'' grooves run transverse to the axis of the body. The thoracic adhesive apparatus is not present in the other sisorid genera. The paired fins may be plaited to form an adhesive apparatus in ''Pseudecheneis'', glyptosternoids, and variably in ''Glyptothorax''. Thus, glyptosternoids lack a thoracic adhesive apparatus, but do have plaited paired fins, and members of the subfamily Sisorinae lack either a thoracic adhesive apparatus or plaited paired fins.
The monophyly of certain glyptosternoid genera is doubtful. The
paraphyly
In taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In ...
of ''Pareuchiloglanis'', ''Oreoglanis'', and ''Pseudexostoma'' (with the possible inclusion of ''Myersglanis'' and ''Parachiloglanis'') has been demonstrated and a rediagnosis of glyptosternine genera is needed.
Evidence from a 2007 molecular analysis supports polyphyly of ''Pareuchiloglanis''. ''Glaridoglanis'' might be a basal member of the tribe Glyptosternina. ''Pseudecheneis'' may be placed in the tribe Glyptosternina, but its sister-group relationship between it and the monophyletic glyptosternoids cannot be rejected.
It has been proposed to move the genera of
Erethistidae
Erethistidae are a family of catfishes that originate from southern Asia. It includes about 45 species.
Taxonomy
This family includes species previously placed in Sisoridae. They were removed because they were thought to be more closely related ...
into Sisoridae.
Distribution
Sisorids inhabit freshwater and originate from southern
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
, from
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
and
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
to South
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
and
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and e ...
, primarily in the Oriental region. Glyptosterninae is distributed from the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historica ...
to China. Most glyptosternine genera are found in China, with the exception of ''Myersglanis''. Glyptosternoid catfish species have restricted distributions, and many apparently wide-ranging species have been shown to consist of more than one species, each with restricted distributions. Sisorids are mostly small forms inhabit mountain streams.
Fossil record and biogeography
The oldest known sisorid fossil is ''B. bagarius'' found in Sumatra and India of the
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 The origin of glyptosternoid fishes could be in the later Pliocene. Another study proposes glyptosternoids possibly originated in the
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but t ...
-
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
boundary (19–24 Mya) and radiated from the Miocene to
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
along with several rapid speciation events in a relatively short time. The three great uplifts of the
Qinghai
Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...
/
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
Plateau
In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...
destroyed the pattern of river systems in the late Pliocene to the early Pleistocene. The ancestor of ''Euchiloglanis'' originated from the allied ''Glyptosternon'' in the second uplift and ''Pareuchiloglanis'', ''Pseudexostoma'', ''Oreoglanis'', ''Exostoma'', and ''Glaridoglanis'' originated with the third uplift. The ''Exostoma'' group (''Exostoma'', ''Pseudexostoma'', and ''Oreoglanis'') originated after the outline of the Qinghai/Tibet Plateau was formed. The speciation of this group was not strong and the distribution limited.
Description
Most of these fish have four pairs of barbels and a large
adipose 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 ...
. The maximum size is 2 metres. In all fish except those of the subfamily Sisorinae, some sort of adhesive apparatus, either in the form of a thoracic adhesive apparatus or in plaited paired fins, allow the fish to adhere to objects.