Centracanthus

Centracanthus is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Sparidae, 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 and Black Sea.

Centracanthus
Curled picarel (C. cirrus)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Acanthuriformes
Family:	Sparidae
Genus:	Centracanthus Rafinesque, 1810
Type species
Centracanthus cirrus Rafinesque, 1810
Species
see text

Taxonomy

Centracanthus was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1810 by the French naturalist and polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque when he described Centracanthus cirrus,^[1] giving its type locality as Sicily.^[2] The genus was considered to be monospecific untIl a fossil species, C. pobedinae, from the Miocene was described from Kazakhstan in 2015.^[3] This genus is placed in the family Sparidae within the order Spariformes by the 5th edition of Fishes of the World.^[4] Some authorities classify this genus in the monotypic subfamily Centracanthinae,^[5] but the 5th edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise subfamilies within the Sparidae.^[4] 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.^[6]

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.^[7]

Species

There are two species classified within the genus:^[8]

• Centracanthus cirrus Rafinesque, 1810 (Curled picarel)
• † Centracanthus pobedinae Bratishko, et al. 2015^[3]

Characteristics

Centracanthus have strongly protrusible mouths and elongate bodies which are shallower than the length of the head and with a standard length which is 5 to 5.6 times its depth. There is a wide incision in the middle of the dorsal fin.^[9] The fossil species, C. pobedinae was identified by its distinctive otoliths.^[3]

Distribution

Centracanthus are found in the temperate western Atlantic Ocean as far north as Portugal and south to the Canary Islands, into the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.^[9] C. cirrus has also been reported from Cape Verde and Mauritania.^[10]

References

1. Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Sparidae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
2. Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Centracanthus". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
3. A. Bratishko; W. Schwarzhans; B. Reichenbacher; Y. Vernyhorova; and S. Coric. (2015). "Fish otoliths from the Konkian (Miocene, early Serravallian) of Mangyshlak (Kazakhstan): testimony to an early endemic evolution in the Eastern Paratethys". Paläontologische Zeitschrift. 89 (4): 839–889. doi:10.1007/s12542-015-0274-4.
4. Nelson, J.S.; Grande, T.C.; Wilson, M.V.H. (2016). Fishes of the World (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 502–506. doi:10.1002/9781119174844. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6. LCCN 2015037522. OCLC 951899884. OL 25909650M.
5. Parenti, P. (2019). "An annotated checklist of the fishes of the family Sparidae". FishTaxa. 4 (2): 47–98.
6. Kent E. Carpenter and G David Johnson (2002). "A phylogeny of sparoid fishes (Perciformes, Percoidei) based on morphology" (PDF). Ichthyological Research. 49 (2): 114–127. doi:10.1007/s102280200015.
7. "Order SPARIFORMES: Families LETHRINIDAE, NEMIPTERIDAE and SPARIDAE". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf. 22 December 2023. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
8. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Centracanthus". FishBase. October 2023 version.
9. Kent E. Carpenter (2016). "Sparidae". In Carpenter, K.E. and De Angelis, N. (eds.). The living marine resources of the Eastern Central Atlantic Volume 2 Bony fishes part 2 (Perciformes to Tetradontiformes) and Sea turtles (PDF). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. Rome: FAO. pp. 2567–2620. ISBN 978-92-5-109267-5.
10. Vakily, J.M.; Camara, S.B.; Mendy, A.N.; et al. (2002). Poissons Marins de la Sous-Région Nord-Ouest Africaine EUR 20379 FR (PDF) (in French). Bruxelles & Italy: Commission Européenne.