''Andeancistrus platycephalus'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...

in the family

Loricariidae Loricariidae is the largest family (biology), family of catfish (order Siluriformes), with over 90 genus, genera and just over 680 species. Loricariids originate from freshwater habitats of Costa Rica, Panama, and tropical and subtropical South A ...

. It is native to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, where it occurs in the

Zamora River The Zamora River (Spanish: ''Río Zamora'') is a tributary of the Santiago River located in the south-east of Ecuador. Historically, it was known to the Spanish as ''Yaya Mayu'' ("Father River"), from the river's name among a group of Shuar ...

basin, which is part of the upper

Marañón River The Marañón River (, , ) is the principal or mainstem source of the Amazon River, arising about 160 km (100 miles) to the northeast of Lima, Peru, and flowing northwest across plateaus 3,650 m (12,000 feet) high, it runs through a deeply ero ...

drainage in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. The species can reach in total length. The species was in the genus '' Cordylancistrus'' until a 2015 reclassification, when Nathan K. Lujan, Vanessa Meza-Vargas, and Ramiro Barriga-Salazar constructed the genera ''

Andeancistrus ''Andeancistrus'' is a genus of Loricariidae, suckermouth armored catfishes native to South America. This genus is diagnosable from all other members of the ''Chaetostoma'' group by having a fully plated snout, lacking cheek odontodes that extend ...

'' and '' Transancistrus''.''

References

Ancistrini Taxa named by George Albert Boulenger Fish described in 1898 Catfish of South America {{Hypostominae-stub