The Crenuchidae, or crenuchids, are a

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 ...

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

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 ...

Characiformes Characiformes is an order of ray-finned fish, comprising the characins and their allies. Grouped in 18 recognized families, more than 2000 different species are described, including the well-known piranha and tetras.; Buckup P.A.: "Relationsh ...

. The 11

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

include about 115

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), ...

, though several species are undescribed. These fish are relatively small (usually under in

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 ...

) and originate from eastern

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

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 ...

. Both subfamilies were previously included in the family

Characidae Characidae, the characids, is a family of freshwater subtropical and tropical fish belonging to the order Characiformes. They are found throughout much of Central and South America, including such major waterways as the Amazon and Orinoco Riv ...

, and were placed in a separate family by Buckup, 1998. Buckup, 1993, revised all genera, except ''Characidium''.Buckup, P.A. 1993. Review of the characidiin fishes (Teleostei: Characiformes), with descriptions of four new genera and ten new species. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters 4(2):97-154. They are the only members of the

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

Crenuchoidea. They are the most basal members of 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 ...

Characoidei Characiformes is an order of Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish, comprising the characins and their allies. Grouped in 18 recognized families, more than 2000 different species are described, including the well-known piranha and tetras.; Buckup P.A ...

, and diverged during the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

, prior to the split between the African characins (Alestoidea) and the other South American characins (Erythrinoidea and Characoidea). This suggests that their divergence likely predates the breakup of

Gondwana Gondwana ( ; ) was a large landmass, sometimes referred to as a supercontinent. The remnants of Gondwana make up around two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia (continent), Australia, Zea ...

, when the divergence between those groups likely occurred. Members of the subfamily Characidiinae are known as South American darters due to their superficial resemblance to North American darters, but they are otherwise unrelated.

Taxonomy

The following taxonomy is based on ''

Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes Catalog of Fishes is a comprehensive on-line database and reference work on the scientific names of fish species and genera. It is global in its scope and is hosted by the California Academy of Sciences. It has been compiled and is continuously up ...

'' (2025): * Subfamily Crenuchinae Günther, 1864 (sailfin tetras) ** '' Crenuchus'' Günther, 1863 ** '' Poecilocharax''

Eigenmann Eigenmann () is a surname. Notable persons with that surname include: * Andi Eigenmann (born 1990), Filipino actress * Carl H. Eigenmann (1863–1927), German–American ichthyologist, husband of Rosa Eigenmann * Eduardo de Mesa Eigenmann, birth n ...

, 1909 * Subfamily Characidiinae Fowler, 1932 (South American darters) ** '' Ammocryptocharax'' Weitzman &

Kanazawa is the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Etymology The name "Kanazaw ...

, 1976 ** '' Characidium'' Reinhardt, 1867 ** '' Elachocharax''

Myers Myers as a surname has several possible origins, e.g. Old French ("physician"), Old English ("mayor"), and Old Norse ("marsh"). People * Abram F. Myers (1889–after 1960), chair of the Federal Trade Commission and later general counsel and b ...

, 1927 ** '' Klausewitzia''

Géry Géry () is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. See also *Communes of the Meuse department The following is a list of the 499 Communes of France, communes of the Meuse (department), Meuse Departments of ...

, 1965 ** '' Leptocharacidium'' Buckup, 1993 ** '' Melanocharacidium'' Buckup, 1993 ** '' Microcharacidium'' Buckup, 1993 ** '' Odontocharacidium'' Buckup, 1993 ** '' Skiotocharax'' Presswell, Weitzman &

Bergquist Bergqvist, Bergquist, Berquist and Bergkvist are surnames of Swedish origin which may refer to: Bergqvist *Åke Bergqvist (1900–1975), Swedish sailor who competed in the 1932 Summer Olympics * Allan Bergkvist (1908–1985), Swedish chess master ...

, 2000

References

Characiformes families Taxa named by Albert Günther {{characiformes-stub