''Gasterosteus nipponicus'' is a species of

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 ...

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 ...

Gasterosteidae, the sticklebacks. This species is found in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.

Taxonomy

''Gasterosteus nipponicus'' first formally described in 2014 by

Masahito Higuchi Masahito is a male Japanese name, that has been used for members of The Japanese Imperial Family. Although written romanized the same way, the kanji can be different. Masahito may refer to: * , later Emperor Go-Shirakawa (後白河天皇) * , eldes ...

Harumi Sakai Japanese given name. Although the name can be given to both sexes, it is more commonly used by females. Written forms Harumi can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *晴美, "sunny, beauty" *晴海, "sunny, sea" *晴実 ...

and

Akira Goto Akira may refer to: People *Akira (given name); and a list of people with this given name Surnames *Asa Akira (born 1986), American pornographic actress, model, and director *Elly Akira, Japanese pornographic actress *Francesco Akira (born 1999) ...

with the type locality given Usujiri,

Minamikayabe, Hokkaido is a city and port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture. As of January 31, 2024, the city had an estimated population of 239,813 with 138,807 households, and a population density of . Th ...

in Japan. Higachi and Goto had previously identified a lineage of

three-spined stickleback The three-spined stickleback (''Gasterosteus aculeatus'') is a fish native to most inland and coastal waters north of 30°N. It has long been a subject of scientific study for many reasons. It shows great morphological variation throughout its ra ...

s (''G. aculateus'') from Japan which had substantial differences from the other lineages, both morphological and genetic, and which genetic studies showed rarely hybridised with sympatric populations of threes-spined sticklebacks.

Description

''Gasterosteus nipponicus'' differs from the three-spined stickleback in that the lateral plates are complete and that they suddenly reduce in size over the anus, the depth of lateral plate over the anus less than 60% of the depth of the deepest plate. In addition the caudal keels are thin and membrane-like. This species has a maximum published

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 ...

of in males and in males.

Distribution and habitat

''Gasterosteus nipponicus'' is found in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Here it occurs in along the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

coats of Japan from

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

to Hokkaido, from

Chiba Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama ...

to Hokkaido on the eastern coast of Japan, along the northern coast of Hokkaido on the

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk; Historically also known as , or as ; ) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, Japan's island of Hokkaido on the sou ...

. It is also found along the southern and eastern coasts of the

Korean Peninsula Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically divided at or near the 38th parallel between North Korea (Dem ...

and north to

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, p=səxɐˈlʲin) is an island in Northeast Asia. Its north coast lies off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, while its southern tip lies north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. An islan ...

. This is a benthopelagic fish which can be found in marine, brackish and fresh waters.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q67183933 nipponicus Taxa named by Akira Goto Fish described in 2014