''Antipodocottus'' 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 ...

Cottidae, the typical sculpins. These fishes are found in the western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. This is the only genus of Cottids represented in the Southern Hemisphere, although their classification in the Cottidae is not universally accepted.

Taxonomy

''Antipodocottus'' was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1952 by the American

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

Rolf Ling Bolin when he described ''Antipodocottus galathea'' from the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who in 1642 wa ...

off New Zealand. 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 ...

'' classifies the genus ''Antipodocottus'' within 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 botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Cottinae Cottinae is a subfamily of ray-finned fishes belonging to the Family (biology), family Cottidae, the typical sculpins. The subfamily has species throughout the northern hemisphere in both marine and freshwater habitats. Genera The following gener ...

of the family Cottidae, however, other authors classify the genus within the subfamily Psychrolutinae of the family Psychrolutidae.

Species

There are currently four recognized species in this genus: * '' Antipodocottus elegans'' R. Fricke & Brunken ( de), 1984 (Dwarf sculpin) * '' Antipodocottus galatheae'' Bolin, 1952 (Galathea sculpin) * '' Antipodocottus megalops'' H. H. DeWitt, 1969 * '' Antipodocottus mesembrinus'' (R. Fricke & Brunken, 1983)

References

Cottinae Taxa named by Rolf Ling Bolin Ray-finned fish genera {{Cottidae-stub