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Common names of fish can refer to a single species; to an entire group of species, such as a genus or family; or to multiple unrelated species or groups. Ambiguous common names are accompanied by their possible meanings. Scientific names for individual species and higher taxa are included in parentheses.
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 updated by the curator emeritus of the CAS fish collection, William N. Eschmeyer.
Fishes are a paraphyletic group and for this reason, the class Pisces seen in older reference works is no longer used in formal taxonomy.Traditional classification divides fish into three extant classes (Agnatha, Chondrichthyes, and Osteichthyes), and with extinct forms sometimes classified within those groups, sometimes as their own classes: [1]
Most species inhabit shallow, coastal waters, but a few are known from the open ocean, especially in association with sargassum mats. They are characterised by their elongated snouts, fused jaws, the absence of pelvic fins , and by thick plates of bony armour covering their bodies.
The triggerfish family, Balistidae. was first proposed in 1810 by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. [5] The closest relatives to the triggerfishes are the filefishses belonging to the family Monacanthidae and these two families are sometimes classified together in the suborder Balistoidei, for example in the 5th edition of Fishes of the World. [6]
Fishes of the World is a standard reference for the systematics of fishes.It was first written in 1976 by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011). Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of the diversity and classification of the 30,000-plus fish species known to science.
FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). [1] It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web. [2] Over time it has "evolved into a dynamic and versatile ecological tool" that is widely cited in scholarly publications. [3] [4] [5]
This is a list of fish families sorted alphabetically by scientific name. There are 525 families in the list.