''Cynoscion'' 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 ...

Sciaenidae Sciaenidae is a family (biology), family of ray-finned fishes belonging to the Order (biology), order Acanthuriformes. They are commonly called drums or croakers in reference to the repetitive throbbing or drumming sounds they make. The family co ...

, the drums and croakers. These fishes are found off the coasts of North and South America in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans. Many fishes in this genus have been given the common name weakfish.

Taxonomy

''Cynoscion'' 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 1861 by the American biologist Theodore Gill with ''Johnnius regalis'', a species originally described in 1801 from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

by Marcis Elieser Bloch and Johann G. T. Schneider, designated as its

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 ...

. This genus has been placed 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 botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Cynoscioninae by some workers, but 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 ...

'' does not recognise subfamilies within the Sciaenidae which it places in 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 ...

Acanthuriformes Acanthuriformes is a large, diverse order of mostly marine ray-finned fishes, part of the Percomorpha clade. In the past, members of this clade were placed in the suborders Acanthuroidea and Percoidea of the order Perciformes, but this treatment ...

Etymology

''Cynoscion'' is a combination of ''cyno'', meaning "dog", a reference to the pair of canine-like teeth in the upper jaw, with ''scion'', the modern

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

name of ''

Umbrina cirrosa ''Umbrina cirrosa'', the shi drum, is a species of marine fish from the warmer waters of the eastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. It is a commercially important species which is trawled for and farmed in aquaculture, as w ...

'', which Gill preferred over ''sciaena'' because he did not like the sound of ''Cynosciaena''. The common name, weakfish, is a reference to the easily torn membrane in the mouth of ''C. regalis''.

Species

The genus consists of 25 species: * ''

Cynoscion acoupa ''Cynoscion acoupa'', the acoupa weakfish, blacktail basher or grey snapper, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. This fish is found in the western Atlantic. Taxonomy ''Cynoscion aco ...

'' ( Lacépède, 1801) (Acoupa weakfish) * ''

Cynoscion albus ''Cynoscion'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family, Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. These fishes are found off the coasts of North and South America in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans. Many fishes in ...

'' (Günther, 1864) (Whitefin weakfish) * ''

Cynoscion analis ''Cynoscion'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family, Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. These fishes are found off the coasts of North and South America in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans. Many fishes in ...

'' ( Jenyns, 1842) (Peruvian weakfish) * ''

Cynoscion arenarius ''Cynoscion arenarius'', sand seatrout, sand weakfish or white trout, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. It is found in the western Atlantic Ocean. It is closely related to the commo ...

'' ( Ginsburg, 1930) (Sand seatrout) * ''

Cynoscion guatucupa ''Cynoscion'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family, Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. These fishes are found off the coasts of North and South America in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans. Many fishes in ...

'' (Cuvier, 1830) (Stripped weakfish) * ''

Cynoscion jamaicensis ''Cynoscion'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family, Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. These fishes are found off the coasts of North and South America in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans. Many fishes in ...

'' ( Vaillant and

Bocourt Marie Firmin Bocourt (19 April 1819 – 4 February 1904) was a French zoologist and artist. As a young man, he worked as a preparateur for the zoologist Gabriel Bibron (1805–1848), later serving as a museum artist. In 1861, he was sent to Thail ...

, 1883) (Jamaica weakfish) * '' Cynoscion leiarchus'' (

Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...

, 1830) (Smooth weakfish) * '' Cynoscion microlepidotus'' (Cuvier, 1830) (Smallscale weakfish) * '' Cynoscion nannus'' ( Castro-Aguirre & Arvizu-Martinez, 1976) (Dwarf weakfish) * ''

Cynoscion nebulosus Spotted seatrout (''Cynoscion nebulosus''), also known as speckled trout, is a common estuarine fish found in the southern United States along coasts of Gulf of Mexico and the coastal Atlantic Ocean from Maryland to Florida. While most of these f ...

'' (Cuvier, 1830) (Spotted seatrout) * '' Cynoscion nortoni'' ( Béarez, 2001) (Hake weakfish) * '' Cynoscion nothus'' ( Holbrook, 1848) (Silver seatrout) * '' Cynoscion othonopterus'' (Jordan and Gilbert, 1882) (Gulf weakfish) * '' Cynoscion parvipinnis'' ( Ayres, 1861) (Shortfin corvina) * '' Cynoscion phoxocephalus'' (Jordan and Gilbert, 1882) (Cachema weakfish) * '' Cynoscion praedatorius'' (Jordan and Gilbert, 1889) (Boccone weakfish) * ''

Cynoscion regalis ''Cynoscion regalis'', the weakfish, is a marine ray-finned fish of the family Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. A medium-large, slender, marine fish, it is found along the east coast of North America. The head and back of this fish are dark ...

'' (

Bloch Bloch is a surname of German origin. Notable people with this surname include: A *Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881–1925), Austrian entrepreneur *Albert Bloch (1882–1961), American painter *Alexandre Bloch (1857–1919), French painter *Alfred Bloch ( ...

and Schneider, 1801)(Squeteague) * '' Cynoscion reticulatus'' (Günther, 1864) * '' Cynoscion similis'' ( Randall and Cervigón, 1968) (Tonkin weakfish) * '' Cynoscion squamipinnis'' (Günther, 1867) (Scalyfin corvina) * '' Cynoscion steindachneri'' (Jordan, 1889) (Smalltooth weakfish) * '' Cynoscion stolzmanni'' (

Steindachner Franz Steindachner (11 November 1834 in Vienna – 10 December 1919 in Vienna) was an Austrian zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. He published over 200 papers on fishes and over 50 papers on reptiles and amphibians. Steindachner descri ...

, 1879) (Yellowtail corvina) * '' Cynoscion striatus'' (Cuvier, 1829) (Striped weakfish) * '' Cynoscion virescens'' (Cuvier, 1830) (Green weakfish) * '' Cynoscion xanthulus'' Jordan & Gilbert, 1882 (Orangemouth weakfish) ''

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

'' treats ''C. striatus'' as a valid species but the ''

Catalog of Fishes Catalog of Fishes is a comprehensive on-line database and reference work on the scientific names of fish species and genera. It is global in its scope and is hosted by the California Academy of Sciences. It has been compiled and is continuously up ...

'' states that this is a ''

nomen oblitum In zoological nomenclature, a ''nomen oblitum'' (plural: ''nomina oblita''; Latin for "forgotten name") is a disused scientific name which has been declared to be obsolete (figuratively "forgotten") in favor of another "protected" name. In its pr ...

'' and is in the

synonymy A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of ''C. guatucupa''.

Characteristics

''Cynoscion'' weakfishes have an elongate, torpedo-shaped body which is compressed to give it an oval cross-section. The head is low, with the crown being firm to the touch rather than spongy with moderately sized eyes and a large oblique mouth. There is a pair of large, pointed canine-like teeth in the front of the upper jaw. There are no

barbel Barbel may refer to: *Barbel (anatomy), a whisker-like organ near the mouth found in some fish (notably catfish, loaches and cyprinids) and turtles *Barbel (fish), a common name for certain species of fish **''Barbus barbus'', a species of cyprini ...

s or pores on the chin. The

preoperculum This glossary of ichthyology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in ichthyology, the study of fishes. A B C ...

is smooth and not serrated and the top corner of gill slit is incised. 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 ...

is long based and is deeply incised with between seven and nine thin spines and between 20 and 30 soft rays. 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 two small spines, less than half the length of the first anal fin ray, and 7 to 13 soft rays. They have large scales,

ctenoid A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as w ...

on the body and cycloid on the head. The lateral line reaches to the middle of the end of the

caudal 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 only ...

. The largest species in the genus are ''C. albus'' which has 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 and ''C. xanthulus'' at while the smallest is ''C. nannus'' reaching .

Distribution

''Cynoscion'' weakfishes are found off the Americas in the eastern Pacific and western Atlantic Oceans being found in tropical and warm temperate waters.

References

{{Authority control Taxa named by Theodore Gill