Chalceidae Explained

Chalceidae, the tucanfishes,[1] is a family of freshwater fish first described by Henry Weed Fowler in the year 1958. It is a monotypic family, home only to the genus incertae sedis Chalceus.

All members of the family inhabit areas of northern South America, including the Amazon River and various tributaries.[2]

Classification

Chalceidae is in the order Characiformes. The genus Chalceus used to be placed in the family Characidae, and is still listed there by several sources (like GBIF and ITIS).[3] Research since its original placement suggested movement into the family Chalceidae, based upon phylogenetic significance as a monophyletic group.[4] Morphological features further support this move.[5] This was also done in order to keep the family Characidae monophyletic.

Currently, only Chalceus is classified in Chalceidae. Because Chalceus is a genus with five extant species, Chalceidae has five extant species by extension.[6] [7] In alphabetical order, they are:

History

Chalceidae was first described in 1958 by Henry Weed Fowler as Chalceidi.[8] It has also been described as Plethodectidi by the same;[9] this is because Plethodectes erythrurus (Cope, 1870) used to be the sole representative, a name now synonymized with Chalceus erythrurus.[10] [11] Therefore, the family Plethodectidi became defunct alongside the genus Plethodectes (in the context of describing species of Chalceus).

Etymology

"Tucanfish" directly translates to "toucan fish", because "tucán" means toucan in Spanish.[12] The species C. erythrurus shares a name with the family it belongs to - it is also commonly called the tucan fish.

The sole genus of Chalceidae, Chalceus, gives the family its name and therefore its etymological root. Said root is the Greek word chalkos, which means copper;[13] [14] this is in reference to the original description of C. macrolepidotus, wherein Georges Cuvier reported that its scales were "sometimes golden" when preserved in alcohol.[15]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Scharpf. Christopher. Lazara. Kenneth J.. 15 September 2020. Order CHARACIFORMES: Families IGUANODECTIDAE, TRIPORTHEIDAE, BRYCONIDAE, CHALCEIDAE and GASTEROPELECIDAE. 26 December 2021. The ETYFish Project.
  2. Web site: COPEPEDIA summary for Chalceidae : T5006059 : Family. 2021-12-26. www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov.
  3. Web site: Chalceus names - Encyclopedia of Life. 2021-12-26. eol.org.
  4. Oliveira, C., Avelino, G.S., Abe, K.T., Mariguela, T.C., Benine, R.C., Orti, G., Vari, R.P., & Correa e Castro, R.M. (2011): Phylogenetic relationships within the speciose family Characidae (Teleostei: Ostariophysi: Characiformes) based on multilocus analysis and extensive ingroup sampling. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 11: 275. doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-11-275
  5. Cástor Guisande, Patricia Pelayo-Villamil, Manuel Vera, Ana Manjarrés-Hernández, Mónica R. Carvalho, Richard P. Vari, Luz Fernanda Jiménez, Carlos Fernández, Paulino Martínez, Edgar Prieto-Piraquive, Carlos Granado-Lorencio, Santiago R. Duque, "Ecological Factors and Diversification among Neotropical Characiforms", International Journal of Ecology, vol. 2012, Article ID 610419, 20 pages, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/610419
  6. Zanata, A.M. . M. Toledo-Piza . 2004. Taxonomic revision of the South American fish genus Chalceus Cuvier (Teleostei: Ostariophysi: Characiformes) with the description of three new species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 140. 11. 103–135. 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2004.00090.x. free.
  7. Web site: Fricke. Ron. Eschmeyer. William N.. Fong. Jon D.. 2020. Genera/Species of Fishes by Family/Subfamily. 26 December 2021. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences.
  8. Fowler. Henry Weed. 1958. Some new taxonomic names of fishlike vertebrates. Notulae Naturae. 310. 26 December 2021.
  9. Van der Laan, R., Eschmeyer, W.N., & Fricke, R. (2014). Family-group names of Recent fishes. Zootaxa, 3882, 1-230.
  10. Cope. Edward Drinker. 1870. Contribution to the Ichthyology of the Maranon. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 11. 81. 563–564. 26 December 2021.
  11. Cope. Edward Drinker. 1872. On the fishes of the Ambyiacu River. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 23. 262. 26 December 2021.
  12. Web site: Translation of tucán – Spanish-English dictionary. 26 December 2021. Cambridge Dictionary. Cambridge University Press.
  13. Web site: Glosbe. 26 December 2021. Copper in Ancient Greek (to 1453).
  14. Hackh. Ingo W. D.. 1918. The Romance of the Chemical Elements. American Journal of Pharmacy and the Sciences Supporting Public Health. 90. 490. 26 December 2021.
  15. Cuvier. Georges. 1818. Sur les Poissons du sous-genre Myletes. Mémoires du Muséum d'histoire naturelle. 4. 454. 24 December 2021.

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