''Atractoscion'' 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 ...

ed 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. The fishes in this genus are found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Taxonomy

''Atractoscion'' 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 1862 by the American

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

Theodore Gill Theodore Nicholas Gill (March 21, 1837 – September 25, 1914) was an American ichthyologist, mammalogist, malacologist, and librarian. Career Born and educated in New York City under private tutors, Gill early showed interest in natural hist ...

with ''Otolithus aequidens'', a species described in 1830 by

Georges 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 ...

from the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

, 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 is classified in the family Sciaenidae which is placed within the

suborder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized ...

Sciaenoidei Sciaenoidei is a suborder of ray-finned fishes belonging to the Order (biology), order Acanthuriformes. Taxonomy The suborder was first proposed in 1828 by the French zoologist Georges Cuvier. The 5th edition of ''Fishes of the World'' classifies ...

of 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 ...

in 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 ...

''.

Etymology

''Atractoscion'' is a combination of ''atracto'', which means "spindle", an allusion Gill did not explain, but it mau have referred to the more cylindrical body shape of this genus in comparison to the typical members of the Sciaenidae, with ''scion'', the modern Greek 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 ...

'', Gill preferring this over “sciaena” because he considered that it sounded better.

Species

There are currently 5 recognized species in this genus: * ''

Atractoscion aequidens The geelbeck croaker (''Atractoscion aequidens''), also known as the African weakfish or Cape salmon, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. This species is found in the southwestern Indi ...

'' (Cuvier, 1830) (Geelbeck croaker) * '' Atractoscion atelodus'' ( Günther, 1867) (Small lunate caudal fin croaker) * '' Atractoscion macrolepis'' Y. S. Song, J. K. Kim, J. H. Kang & S. Y. Kim, 2017 (Large scale lunate caudal fin croaker) * ''

Atractoscion microlepis ''Atractoscion'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fished belonging to the family (biology), family Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. The fishes in this genus are found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Taxonomy ''Atractoscion'' was fi ...

'' . S. Song, J. K. Kim, J. H. Kang & S. Y. Kim, 2017 (Small scale lunate caudal fin croaker) * ''Atractoscion nobilis'' (William Orville Ayres">Ayres, 1860) (White weakfish)

Characteristics

''Atractoscion'' fishes are characterised by having elongate fusiform, compressed bodies with an oval cross-section. They have moderately sized eyes. The slightly oblique mout opens at the front and has a slightly protruding lower jaw. There are no barbels or pores on the chin and the preoperculum has a smooth margin. They have a raised ridge along the centre of their bellies. 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 ...

has a long base with a deep incision separating the spined and soft-rayed portions of the fin and it has 10 or 11 spines and between 21 and 23 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 ...

has 2 thin, short spines and 9 or 10 soft rays. They have short

pelvic The pelvis (: pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of an anatomical trunk, between the abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis or pelvic skeleton). ...

and

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

s. They have small, rough scales apart from around the eyes where the scales are smooth. There are no scales in the fins. The teeth are cardiform or pluriserial, and 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 ...

is slightly emarginate to lunate. The largest species in the genus is the

white seabass The white seabass or white weakfish, ''Atractoscion nobilis'', is a species of Sciaenidae, croaker occurring from Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur, to Juneau, Alaska. They usually travel in Shoaling and schooling, schools over deep rocky botto ...

(''A. nobilis'') 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 .

Distribution and habitat

''Atractoscion'' croakers are found in the south eastern Atlantic, southwestern Indian, northern Indian, western and eastern Pacific Oceans. These are coastal fishes often found in estuaries.

References

{{Authority control Sciaenidae Taxa named by Theodore Gill Ray-finned fish genera