The Adana chub (''Squalius adanaensis'') is a

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), ...

of freshwater

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 ...

Leuciscidae Leuciscidae is a family of freshwater ray-finned fishes, formerly classified as a subfamily of the Cyprinidae, which contains the true minnows. Members of the Old World (OW) clade of minnows within this subfamily are known as European minnow ...

, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related fishes. This species is endemic to the Seyhan River in southeastern Turkey.

Taxonomy

The Adana chub was first formally described in 2013 by

Maurice Kottelat Maurice Kottelat (born 16 July 1957 in Delémont, SwitzerlandC ...

and Esra Doğan with its type locality given as the Üçürge Stream at

Karaisalı Karaisalı is a district of Adana Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,165 km2, and its population is 22,042 (2022). The area contains the reservoirs of Çatalan and Nergizlik. There is a wrestling tournament in late-April to early-May at Salba� ...

in the

Seyhan River The Seyhan River (formerly written ''Seihan'', ''Sihun''; ancient name: , ''Sáros''), alternatively known as ''Sarus'' (or in Turkish as ''Sarus Su''),John Garstang and O.R. Gurney is the longest river of Cilicia and the longest of Turkey t ...

drainage system in the

Adana Province Adana Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality of Turkey located in central Cilicia. The administrative seat of the province is the city of Adana, home to 78.25% of the r ...

of Turkey. The Adana chub belongs to the genus ''

Squalius ''Squalius'' is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family (biology), family Leuciscidae, the daces, Eurasian minnows and reklated fishes. The fishies in this genus are found in Europe and Asia. Hybrid (biology), Hybridization ...

'', commonly referred to as chubs, which belongs to the

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 ...

Leuciscinae Leuciscinae is a subfamily of freshwater Actinopterygii, ray-finned fishes belonging to the Family (biology), family Leuciscidae, which includes the fishes known as daces, chubs, shiners and minnows. The fishes in this subfamily are mainly found i ...

of the family Leuciscidae.

Etymology

The Adana chub belongs to the genus ''Squalius'', this name was proposed by the French biologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1837 for a subgenus of the genus ''

Leuciscus ''Leuciscus'' is a genus of freshwater and brackish water ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related species. They are inland water fishes commonly called Eurasian daces. Th ...

'' for the Italian chub (''

Squalius cephalus ''Squalius cephalus'', the common chub, European chub or simply chub, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, the daces, Eurasian minnows and related fishes. This species is found in Europe where it freq ...

''), inserting and additional "i" to prevent homonymy with the spurdog genus ''

Squalus ''Squalus'' is a genus of dogfish sharks in the family (biology), family Squalidae. Commonly known as spurdogs, these sharks are characterized by smooth dorsal fin spines, teeth in upper and lower fish jaw, jaws similar in size, caudal peduncle ...

''. In

classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a Literary language, literary standard language, standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It formed parallel to Vulgar Latin around 75 BC out of Old Latin ...

the chub and the spurdog were

homonyms In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; ''homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or ''homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciatio ...

as ''squalus''. An alternative explanation was that the name is a latinisation of ''squaglio'', a vernacular name for the Italian chub in Rome and its environs. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, ''adanaensis'', means "of Adana", referring to the type locality being in Adana Province.

Distribution and habitat

The Adana chub is endemic to the lower drainage basin of the Syehan River in Adana Province, Turkey. Here it is found in the lowlying reaches of rivers and streams. It is also found in the reservoirs of the

Seyhan Dam The Seyhan Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Seyhan River north of Adana, Turkey. The dam was constructed in the 1950s as the first in a series of hydroelectric projects funded by the World Bank. The project was authorized by Prime Minister Adna ...

but it probably migrates upstream into the rivers flwoing into the reservoir to breed.

Conservation

The Adana chub is classified as

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

. The threats to this species are pollution, water abstraction and damming.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21323686 Squalius Fish described in 2013 Taxa named by Davut Turan Taxa named by Esra Doğan Taxa named by Maurice Kottelat Endemic fauna of Turkey