Mediterranean damsel

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Mediterranean damsel
Aphanius fasciatus, male.

Aphanius fasciatus , male.

Systematics
Ovalentaria
Superordinate : Earfish relatives (Atherinomorphae)
Order : Toothpies (Cyprinodontiformes)
Subordination : Cyprinodontoidei
Family : Aphaniidae
Genre : Mediterranean damsel
Scientific name
Aphanius
Nardo , 1827

The Mediterranean fish ( Aphanius ) are a genus from the order of the tooth fish . They occur in fresh and brackish waters in the coastal plains of southern Europe and North Africa (to Somalia ) and in inland waters of North Africa, Iran and Turkey . Distribution focus, d. H. the most biodiverse area is the plateau of Anatolia .

features

Aphanius species are 3 to 7 cm long. Your body is moderately elongated and only slightly flattened on the sides. The mouth is short and partly strong above. The teeth are three-pointed. The scaling is complete, but it can also be reduced or completely absent. All fins are rounded. The dorsal and anal fins are similar and face each other almost symmetrically. The pelvic fins may be missing. Usually there is a gender dimorphism . The females are usually larger and spotted or spotted on a plain background. The males often show horizontal stripes. Even within a species there can be a distinct dimorphism in color, due to populations that live completely isolated from each other.

The three diagnostic features that distinguish the genus from other genera of toothfish relate to skull morphology. The sensory pores on the skull are designed as pores, and not as neuromastes, the Urohyale, a tendon ossification in the skull, is not embedded in a Urohyal membrane and the Interhyale (skull bone) is ossified. The number of vertebrae is 26; the number of scales along the sideline is from 24 to 26, and the number of Branchiostegal rays is 5.

Of Aphaniops is Aphanius delineated by the following features: The dorsal fin is supported 10-14 fin rays (8-9 at Aphaniops ), the ventral fins are well developed, only rudimentary or absent (if present with 5 to 7 fin rays), said first fin rays the anal fin are surrounded by a scaled or unscaled fold of skin (absent in Aphaniops ).

Way of life

Aphanius species mostly live in small and very small bodies of water with fresh, brackish or seawater. These can be springs, pools, swamps, lagoons, canals or ditches. The waters are often in direct contact with the sea and have a high content of sulfides or magnesium compounds . Salinity and temperatures can fluctuate widely, the latter both on an annual basis and between day and night. The fish avoid running water and feed on plants as well as various small animals and detritus . They are not seasonal fish . They attach their spawn to objects.

Systematics

The genus Aphanius was introduced in 1827 by the Italian naturalist Giovanni Domenico Nardo . The American ichthyologist Lynne R. Parenti put the genus together with the South American Andean parsons ( Orestias ) within the family Cyprinodontidae in the tribe Orestini. Because of the polyphylie of the Cyprinodontidae, the genus was transferred to an independent family (Aphaniidae) in mid-2017 by the German ichthyologist Jörg Freyhof and two Turkish colleagues. The name was first mentioned in a dissertation in 1960. With the introduction of the genus Paraphanius in April 2020 and the revalidation of Aphaniops , the family is no longer monotypical .

species

A total of over 30 Aphanius species are distinguished:

Aphanius danfordii
Holotype of Aphanius mesopotamicus , a female
Paratype of Aphanius mesopotamicus , one male

Around 15 other species originally assigned to Aphanius now belong to the genera Paraphanius and Aphaniops, newly introduced or revalidated in April 2020 .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Hamid Reza Esmaeili, Azad Teimori, Fatah Zarei, Golnaz Sayyadzadeh (2020): DNA barcoding and species delimitation of the Old World tooth-carps, family Aphaniidae Hoedeman, 1949 (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes). PLoS ONE, 15 (4): e0231717. doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0231717
  2. ↑ a b Lynne R. Parenti: A phylogenetic and biogeographic analysis of cyprinodontiform fishes (Teleostei, Atherinomorpha). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History; Volume 168, Article 4, 1981, page 521.
  3. ↑ Jörg Freyhof, Müfit Özuluğ & Gülsah Saç (2017): Neotype designation of Aphanius iconii , first reviser action to stabilize the usage of A. fontinalis and A. meridionalis and comments on the family group names of fishes placed in Cyprinodontidae (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes ) . Zootaxa , 4294 (5): 573-585. DOI: 10.11646 / zootaxa.4294.5.6
  4. ^ Sethi, RP 1960. Osteology and phylogeny of oviparous cyprinodont fishes (or Cyprinodontiformes) . Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. Florida, Univ. Microfilms, Ann Arbor, pp. 1-275.

Web links

Commons : Aphanius  - collection of images, videos and audio files