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Cottidae

(Redirected from Cottocomephoridae)

The Cottidae are a family of fish in the superfamily Cottoidea, the sculpins. Following major taxonomic revisions, it contains about 118 species in 18 genera, the vast majority of which are either restricted to freshwater habitats or are amphidromous.[2] They are referred to simply as cottids to avoid confusion with sculpins of other families.[3]

Cottidae
Temporal range: Early Oligocene–recent
Cottus cognatus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Suborder: Cottoidei
Superfamily: Cottoidea
Family: Cottidae
Bonaparte, 1831[1]
Subfamilies and genera

see text

Synonyms
  • Abyssocottinae Berg, 1907
  • Cottinae Bonaparte, 1831

Cottids are distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, especially in boreal and colder temperate climates.[3] They are especially diverse in Lake Baikal and surrounding river basins. Only a few cottids inhabit marine habitats. Other sculpins restricted to marine habitats are now placed in the family Psychrolutidae.[4] In Lake Baikal, many cottids live in deep water, below 170 m (560 ft).[5] There are 24 known species in seven genera.[5] These include, for instance, Abyssocottus korotneffi and Cottinella boulengeri which are among the deepest-living freshwater fish.[6] Baikal is the deepest lake on Earth (1,642 m or 5,387 ft) and sculpins occupy even its greatest depths.[7]

Most cottids are small fish, under 10 cm (3.9 in) in length.[8]

The earliest known skeletal remains of cottids are of Cottus cervicornis (taxonomy uncertain) from the Early Oligocene of Belgium. Cottids become more common in the fossil record from the Miocene onwards.[9]

Taxonomy

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The Cottidae was first recognised as a taxonomic grouping by the French zoologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1831.[1] The composition of the family and its taxonomic relationships have been the subject of some debate among taxonomists. The 5th edition of Fishes of the World retains a rather conservative classification, although it includes the families Comephoridae and Abbyssocottidae as subfamilies of the Cottidae recognising that these taxa are very closely related to some of the freshwater sculpins in the genus Cottus.[10] More recently, phylogenetic studies have redefined Cottidae to be largely restricted to the freshwater sculpins, i.e. Cottus, Leptocottus, Mesocottus, Trachidermus, and the species flock in and around Lake Baikal, and the marine genera are placed in the Psychrolutidae.[4] Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes follows this classification.[11]

Taxonomy

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Comephorus baikalensis

Based on Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (2025):[11]

Evolution

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Molecular studies based on mitochondrial DNA suggest that the Lake Baikal cottids, previously placed in the subfamilies Abyssocottinae, Cottocomephorinae & Comephorinae (Baikal oilfish), together make a monophyletic group that has originated and diversified within the lake relative recently, since the Pliocene. The ancestors of this species flock comprising more than 30 species belonged to the widespread freshwater sculpin genus Cottus (in Cottidae). The Abyssocottidae itself appears as a natural group within this radiation, except that also the genus Batrachocottus should be included.[13]

See also

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References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cottidae.
  1. ^ a b Richard van der Laan; William N. Eschmeyer & Ronald Fricke (2014). "Family-group names of Recent fishes". Zootaxa. 3882 (2): 001–230. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3882.1.1. PMID 25543675.
  2. ^ "CAS - Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes - Genera/Species by Family/Subfamily". researcharchive.calacademy.org. Retrieved 2025-08-09.
  3. ^ a b Kane, E. A. and T. E. Higham. (2012). Life in the flow lane: differences in pectoral fin morphology suggest transitions in station-holding demand across species of marine sculpin. Archived 2020-10-22 at the Wayback Machine Zoology (Jena) 115(4), 223–32.
  4. ^ a b W. Leo Smith & Morgan S. Busby (2014). "Phylogeny and taxonomy of sculpins, sandfishes, and snailfishes (Perciformes: Cottoidei) with comments on the phylogenetic significance of their early-life-history specializations". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 79: 332–352. Bibcode:2014MolPE..79..332S. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2014.06.028. PMID 25014569.
  5. ^ a b Froese, R. and D. Pauly. (Eds.) Abyssocottidae. FishBase. 2011.
  6. ^ Jakubowski, M. (1997). Morphometry of gill respiratory area in the Baikalian deep-water sculpins Abyssocottus korotneffi and Cottinella boulengeri (Abyssocottidae, Cottoidei). Journal of Morphology 233(2), 105–12.
  7. ^ Hunt, D. M., et al. (1997). Molecular evolution of the cottoid fish endemic to Lake Baikal deduced from nuclear DNA evidence. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 8(3), 415–22.
  8. ^ Eschmeyer, W. N. (1998). Paxton, J. R. and W. N. Eschmeyer. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Fishes. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 178–79. ISBN 0-12-547665-5.
  9. ^ Nazarkin, M. V. (2017-01-01). "A new horned sculpin (Pisces: Cottidae) from the Miocene of Sakhalin Island, Russia". Paleontological Journal. 51 (1): 77–86. doi:10.1134/S0031030117010099. ISSN 1555-6174.
  10. ^ J. S. Nelson; T. C. Grande; M. V. H. Wilson (2016). Fishes of the World (5th ed.). Wiley. pp. 467–495. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6. Archived from the original on 2019-04-08. Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  11. ^ a b Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Cottidae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  12. ^ Smith, Gerald R.; Kimmel, P. G. (1975). "Fishes of the Pliocene Glenns Ferry Formation, Southwest Idaho; Fishes of the Miocene - Pliocene Deer Butte Formation, Southeast Oregon Claude W. Hibbard Memorial Volume V". Papers on Paleontology (14): 1–87.
  13. ^ Tytti Kontula; Sergei V. Kirilchik; and Risto Väinölä (2003). "Endemic diversification of the monophyletic cottoid fish species flock in Lake Baikal explored with mtDNA sequencing]". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 27 (1): 143–155. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(02)00376-7.
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