''Centracanthus'' 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 ...

es 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 ...

Sparidae Sparidae is a family of ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Spariformes, the seabreams and porgies, although they were traditionally classified in the order Perciformes. The over 150 species are found in shallow and deep marine waters in t ...

, the seabreams and porgies. There is a single extant species in this genus, as well as an extinct species classified within the genus. The extant species is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

and

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

Taxonomy

''Centracanthus'' was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1810 by the French

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and

polymath A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; 22 October 178318 September 1840) was a French early 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ult ...

when he described ''Centracanthus cirrus'', giving its type locality as

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. The genus was considered to be monospecific untIl a

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

species, ''C. pobedinae'', from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

was described from Kazakhstan in 2015. This genus is placed in the family Sparidae within the order Spariformes by 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 ...

''. Some authorities classify this genus in the

monotypic 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 "unisp ...

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Centracanthinae, but the 5th edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise subfamilies within the Sparidae. This genus and the genus '' Spicara'' were considered to belong to a separate family, Centracanthidae, but phylogenetic analyses resolved that the Sparidae was paraphyletic if Centracanthus and Spicara were not included within it.

Etymology

''Centracanthus'' is a combination of ''centron'', meaning “point”, and ''acanthus'', which means “thorn” or “spine”, this may be a reference to what Rafinesque described as two dorsal fins with “some rays or loose thorns between them and their membranes”. In fact, there is a single dorsal fin with a dip in its middle section.

Species

There are two species classified within the genus: * '' Centracanthus cirrus'' Rafinesque, 1810 (Curled picarel) * '' Centracanthus pobedinae'' Bratishko, ''et al.'' 2015

Characteristics

''Centracanthus'' have strongly protrusible mouths and elongate bodies which are shallower than the length of the head and with a

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of fish anatomy, their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is ...

which is 5 to 5.6 times its depth. There is a wide incision in the middle of the dorsal fin. The fossil species, ''C. pobedinae'' was identified by its distinctive otoliths.

Distribution

''Centracanthus'' are found in the temperate western Atlantic Ocean as far north as Portugal and south to the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

, into the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. ''C. cirrus'' has also been reported from Cape Verde and Mauritania.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1930732 Sparidae Taxa named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque Spariform fish genera Fish genera with one living species