Cynoscion Explained

Cynoscion is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family, Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. These fishes are found off the coasts of North and South America in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans. Many fishes in this genus have been given the common name weakfish.

Taxonomy

Cynoscion was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1861 by the American biologist Theodore Gill with Johnnius regalis, a species originally described in 1801 from New York by Marcis Elieser Bloch and Johann G. T. Schneider, designated as its type species. This genus has been placed in the subfamily Cynoscioninae by some workers,[1] but the 5th edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise subfamilies within the Sciaenidae which it places in the order Acanthuriformes.[2]

Etymology

Cynoscion is a combination of cyno, meaning "dog", a reference to the pair of canine-like teeth in the upper jaw, with scion, the modern Greek name of Umbrina cirrosa, which Gill preferred over sciaena because he did not like the sound of Cynosciaena.[3] The common name, weakfish, is a reference to the easily torn membrane in the mouth of C. regalis.[4]

Species

The genus consists of 25 species:

FishBase treats C. striatus as a valid species but the Catalog of Fishes states that this is a nomen oblitum and is in the synonymy of C. guatucupa.

Characteristics

Cynoscion weakfishes have an elongate, torpedo shapes body which is compressed to give it an oval cross-section. The head is low, with the crown being firm to the touch rather than spongy with moderately sized eyes and a large oblique mouth. There is a pair of large, pointed canine-like teeth in the front of the upper jaw. There are no barbels or pores on the chin. The preoperculum is smooth and not serrated and the top corner of gill slit is incised. The dorsal fin is long based and is deeply incised with between 7 and 9 thin spines and between 20 and 30 soft rays. The anal fin is supported by 2 small spines, less than half the length of the first anal fin ray, and 7 to 13 soft rays. They have large scales, ctenoid on the body and cycloid on the head. The lateral line reaches to the middle of the end of the caudal fin.[5] The largest species in the genus are C. albus which has a maximum published total length of and C. xanthulus at while the smallest is C. nannus reaching .

Distribution

Cynoscion weakfishes are found off the Americas in the eastern Pacific and western Atlantic Oceans being found in tropical and warm temperate waters.[5]

Notes and References

  1. Kunio Sasaki . 1989 . Phylogeny of the family Sciaenidae, with notes on its Zoogeography (Teleostei, Peciformes) . Memoirs of the Faculty of Fishes Hokkaido University . 36 . 1-2 . 1–137 .
  2. Book: Fishes of the World . 5th . J. S. Nelson . T. C. Grande . M. V. H. Wilson . 2016 . 497–502 . Wiley . 978-1-118-34233-6 . 2023-04-30 . 2019-04-08 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190408194051/https://sites.google.com/site/fotw5th/ . dead .
  3. Web site: Series Eupercaria (Incertae sedis): Families Callanthidae, Centrogenyidae, Dinopercidae, Emmelichthyidae, Malacanthidae, Monodactylidae, Moronidae, Parascorpididae, Sciaenidae and Sillagidae . The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database . Christopher Scharpf . Kenneth J. Lazara . amp . 9 March 2023 . 26 April 2023 . Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara.
  4. Web site: Weakfish . 1 May 2023 . Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
  5. Web site: Genus: Cynoscion, Weakfish Croaker, Weakfishes . 30 April 2023 . Shorefishes of the Greater Caribbean online information system . Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

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