Benthophilinae

The Benthophilinae are a subfamily of gobies endemic to the Ponto-Caspian region (including the Marmara, Black, Azov, Caspian, and Aral Seas).^[1] The subfamily includes about 50 species. The representatives of the subfamily have fused pelvic fins and elongated dorsal and anal fins.^[2] They are distinguished from the closely related subfamily Gobiinae by the absence of a swimbladder in adults and location of the uppermost rays of the pectoral fins within the fin membrane.^[3]

Benthophilinae
The pale monkey goby (Neogobius fluviatilis) and the dark bighead goby (Ponticola kessleri) are representatives of Benthophilinae
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Gobiiformes
Family:	Gobiidae
Subfamily:	Benthophilinae Beling & Iljin, 1927
Type genus
Benthophilus Eichwald, 1831
Genera
See text

The Catalog of Fishes still considers these fishes as belonging to the subfamily Gobiinae.^[4]

Systematics of the subfamily

• Tribe Benthophilini
  • Anatirostrum
  • Benthophiloides
  • Benthophilus (type genus)
  • Caspiosoma
• Tribe Neogobiini
  • Neogobius (type genus)
• Tribe Ponticolini
  • Babka
  • Mesogobius
  • Ponticola (type genus)
  • Proterorhinus^[5]

References

1. Simonović P.D., Nikolić V.P., Skóra K.E. (1996) Vertebral number in Ponto-Caspian gobies: phylogenetic relevance. J. Fish Biol., 49: 1027–1029.
2. Miller P.J. (1986) Gobiidae. In: Whitehead P.J.P., Bauchot M.-L., Hureau J.-C., Nielsen J., Tortonese E. (eds.) Fishes of the North-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Vol. 3. UNESCO, Paris.
3. Pinchuk V.I. (1991) K voprosu o grupirovkakh vidov v predelakh roda Neogobius (Perciformes). Voprosy Ikhtiologii, 31: 380–393.
4. W. Eschmeyer (2015) Catalog of Fishes Archived May 3, 2015, at the Wayback Machine California Academy of Sciences (1 Mar 2015)
5. Neilson M.E., Stepien C.A. (2009) Escape from the Ponto-Caspian: Evolution and biogeography of an endemic goby species flock (Benthophilinae: Gobiidae: Teleostei). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 52(1): 84-102.

External links

• Neogobiin research at the University of Toledo, Ohio
• Systematics of the Neogobiin Gobies Research project at U Toledo