Catalog of Fishes is a comprehensive on-line database and reference work on the

scientific names In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

of fish species and genera. It is global in its scope and is hosted by the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...

. It has been compiled and is continuously updated by the

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of the CAS fish collection, William N. Eschmeyer. The

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

maintained by the Catalog of Fishes is considered authoritative and it is used as a baseline reference for instance by the broader global fish database FishBase, which involves cross-references to the Catalog's information for all accepted

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

. , the searchable catalogue contains entries for about 58,300 fish species names, about 33,400 of which are currently accepted (valid), and for some 10,600 genera (5,100 valid).Biodiversity Information Projects of the World: ''Catalog of Fishes''

Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), originally called the Taxonomic Databases Working Group, is a non-profit scientific and educational association that works to develop open standards for the exchange of biodiversity data, facilitating bio ...

project The information given for any species name generally contains the reference to the original description, to the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

, references to the usage of the name in taxonomic literature, a statement of the current status of the name and valid name of the taxon, and the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

it belongs to. A printed 3000-page three-volume and CD version of the Catalogue was published in 1998. That was preceded by a ''Catalog of the genera of recent fishes'' in 1990.Rainer Froese
Eschmeyer’s Catalog of Fishes
FishBase (15 Feb 2015) The Catalog was renamed Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes in 2019, and is now edited by

Ronald Fricke Ronald Fricke is a German ichthyologist and researcher of biodiversity at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart. As of 2022, Fricke authored 8 families, 10 genera and 186 species within the families of Callionymidae, Gobiesocidae, Ophi ...

, Richard van der Laan and William N. Eschmeyer. It is available online, and updated monthly.

References

{{reflist

Original resource

* Eschmeyer, W.N
Catalog of Fishes Online Database
*Eschmeyer, W.N. (ed.) 1998. Catalog of fishes. Special Publication, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 3 vols. 2905 p. *Eschmeyer, W.N. 1990. Catalog of the genera of recent fishes. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 697 p. Biodiversity databases Fish taxonomy Ichthyological literature

See also

References

Original resource