Bovichtidae, the temperate icefishes or thornfishes, is a family of marine ray-finned fishes, classified in the suborder Notothenioidei of the order

Perciformes Perciformes (), also called the Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish in the clade Percomorpha. ''Perciformes'' means " perch-like". Among the well-known members of this group are perches and darters ( Percidae), and als ...

. They are native to coastal waters off

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, and

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 ...

Systematics

Bovichtidae was first formally described as a family in 1861 by the American

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

Theodore Nicholas Gill. The family name was spelled Bovichthyidae in the 4th edition of J. S. Nelson's '' Fishes of the World'' but has been reverted to Bovichtidae in the 5th edition. Phylogenetic analysis of morphological characters has revealed that the family Bovichtidae may not be a monophyletic group. Bovichtidae is one of two families of the suborder Notothenioidei with a primarily non-Antarctic distribution, the other being Pseudaphritidae. The name of the family is taken from its type genus, ''Bovichtus'' which is derived from meaning "bull" and ' which means fish, based on the local name for ''Bovichtus'' species in Valparaiso, Chile, ''torrito'', the "little bull". The Bovichtidae is the

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to ref ...

family to the Pseudaphritidae which in turn is sister to the Eleginopidae and these are all sister to the rest of the families in the Notothenoidei which have been placed in the suggested superfamily Cryonotothenioidea. The Bovichtidae are regarded as the most basal family in the suborder.

Genera

Currently, three genera are included in this family, with the catadromous genus '' Pseudaphritis'' ( Castelnau, 1872) now being placed in its own family, Pseudaphritidae. * '' Bovichtus'' Valenciennes, 1832 * '' Cottoperca'' Steindachner, 1875 * '' Halaphritis'' Last, Balushkin & Hutchins, 2002

Characteristics

Bovichtidae icefishes are characterised by a protrusible a not very elongated or pronounced snout. The gill membranes not connected to the isthmus and they project quite far forward. There is a single lateral line. They have a long, compressed body with two dorsal fins, the front dorsal fin being spiny. There are no spines in the anal fin. There is a spine on the operculum which may be weak and flattened or robust, long and pointed. There is a single nostril on the snout. There are small conical teeth on the jaws, vomer and palatine. There is no swim bladder.

Distribution and habitat

Bovichtidae species are found in the southern hemisphere where they occur in marine waters off southern South America, southern Australia and New Zealand.

References

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q1313669 Taxa named by Theodore Gill