''Acanthopagrus'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

es belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Sparidae Sparidae is a family of ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Spariformes, the seabreams and porgies, although they were traditionally classified in the order Perciformes. The over 150 species are found in shallow and deep marine waters in t ...

, the sea breams and porgies. The fish in this genus are found in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans.

Taxonomy

''Acanthopagrus'' was first proposed as a

monospecific genus 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 "unispe ...

in 1855 by the German zoologist

Wilhelm Peters Wilhelm Karl Hartwich (or Hartwig) Peters (22 April 1815 – 20 April 1883) was a German natural history, naturalist and explorer. He was assistant to the anatomist Johannes Peter Müller and later became curator of the Natural History Museum, ...

, with its only species, and

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

, being ''Chrysophrys vagus'' which Peters had described in 1852 from Sena on the

Zambezi River The Zambezi (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than half of t ...

in Mozambqiue. The genus ''Acanthopagrus'' is placed in the family Sparidae within the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Spariformes Spariformes is an order of ray-finned fishes consisting of six families within the series Percomorpha. Taxonomy Spariformes was first used as a taxonomic term in 1860 by the Dutch physician, herpetologist and ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker. Trad ...

by the 5th edition of ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' is a standard reference for the systematics of fishes. It was first written in 1976 by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011). Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of t ...

''. Some authorities classify this genus in the subfamily Sparinae, but the 5th edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise subfamilies within the Sparidae.

Etymology

''Acanthopagrus'' is a compound of ''acanthus'', meaning "thorn" or "spine", this allusion was not explained by Peters but may be a reference to the robust spines on the

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

and the enlarged second anal-fin spine of the type species, with ''pagrus'', which is derived from ''phagros'', an ancient Greek name for sea breams, used as far back as

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

's life.

Species

There are currently 22 recognized species in this genus: * '' Acanthopagrus akazakii'' Iwatsuki, Kimura & Yoshino, 2006 (New Caledonian seabream) * '' Acanthopagrus arabicus'' Iwatsuki, 2013 (Arabian yellowfin seabream) * ''

Acanthopagrus australis ''Acanthopagrus australis'', the yellowfin bream, also known as sea bream, surf bream, silver bream or eastern black bream, is a species of marine and freshwater fish of the porgy family, Sparidae. It is a deep-bodied fish, occasionally confused ...

'' Günther, 1859 (Surf bream) * ''

Acanthopagrus berda ''Acanthopagrus berda'', the goldsilk seabream, sly bream, picnic seabream, black sea bream, black porgy, picky bream, silver bream or river bream, is a species of ray-finned fish belonging to the family Sparidae, the sea breams and porgies. This ...

'' Fabricius, 1775 (Goldsilk seabream) * '' Acanthopagrus bifasciatus'' Forsskål, 1775 (Twobar seabream) * ''

Acanthopagrus butcheri The black bream (''Acanthopagrus butcheri''), also commonly known as the southern black bream, southern bream and blue-nosed bream, is a species of anadromous ray-finned fish of the porgy family Sparidae. A deep-bodied fish, it is occasionally ...

Munro A Munro (; ) is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevi ...

, 1949 (Southern black bream) * '' Acanthopagrus catenula'' Lacépède, 1801 (Bridled seabream) * '' Acanthopagrus chinshira'' Kume & Yoshino, 2008 (Okinawan yellowfin seabream) * '' Acanthopagrus oconnorae'' Pombo-Ayora, Viktor N. Peinemann, Collin T. Williams, Song He, Yu Jia Lin, Yukio Iwatsuki, Donal D. C. Bradley and Berumen, 2022 * '' Acanthopagrus datnia''

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

, 1822 (Bengal Yellowfin Seabream) * '' Acanthopagrus estuarius'' ( Gilchrist & W. W. Thompson 1908) * ''

Acanthopagrus latus ''Acanthopagrus latus'', the yellowfin seabream, grey bream, Houttuyn's yellowfin seabream, Japanese bream or yellow-finned black porgy, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Sparidae, the seabreams and porgies. This fish ...

'' Houttuyn, 1782 (Yellowfin seabream) * '' Acanthopagrus morrisoni'' Iwatsuki, 2013 (Western yellowfin seabream) * '' Acanthopagrus oconnorae'' Pombo-Ayora & Peinemann, 2022 (Red Sea Yellowfin Seabream) * '' Acanthopagrus omanensis'' Iwatsuki & Heemstra, 2010 (Black margined seabream) * '' Acanthopagrus pacificus'' Iwatsuki, Kume & Yoshino, 2010 (Pacific seabream) * '' Acanthopagrus palmaris'' Whiltey, 1935 (North West black bream) * '' Acanthopagrus randalli'' Iwatsuki & K. E. Carpenter, 2009 (Middle East black seabream) * '' Acanthopagrus schlegelii'' Bleeker, 1854 (Blackhead seabream) ** ''A. s. czerskii'' L. S. Berg, 1914 ** ''A. s. schlegelii'' Bleeker, 1854 * '' Acanthopagrus sheim'' Iwatsuki, 2013 (Spotted yellowfin seabream) * '' Acanthopagrus sivicolus'' Akazaki, 1962 (Okinawa seabream) * '' Acanthopagrus taiwanensis'' Iwatsuki & K. E. Carpenter, 2006 (Taiwan picnic seabream) * '' Acanthopagrus vagus'' W. K. H. Peters, 1852 (Wandering seabream)

Characteristics

''Acanthopagrus'' sea breams are characterised by the possessopn of a number of pairs of large, peg-shaped canines in the front of the jaw, an outer row of shorter canines along each side of the jaws and a few inner rows of rounded molar-like teeth at the rear of the jaws. The molar-like teeth become slightly larger towards the rear of each jaw. The dorsal fin is supported by between 12 and 15, infrequently 10 or 11, segmented rays and the

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

is supported by 8 to 10 segmented rays. The second spine of the anal fin is very robust and is markedly longer than the third spines. Most of the scales are ctenoid but there are no scales on the space between the eyes. They have moderately deep compressed bodies and moderately large eyes. Their overall colour is silvery with a darker back and paler belly. The largest species in the genus is the goldsilk seabream (''A. berda'') with a maximum published

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...

of while the smallest is ''A. akazakii''.

Distribution

''Acanthopagrus'' sea breams are found in the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans from the eastern coast of Africa and the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

as far east as

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

, south to Australia and north to Japan.

References