Chlorurus

The word 'Chlorurus' comes from the Greek words 'chloros', which means green and 'oura', which means tail.

Chlorurus is most closely related to its sister genus Scarus. Most recent phylogenetic analyses find that the two genera diverged during the late Miocene (Messinian).^[5] In both genera, most of their diversification occurred some time later, within the last 3.5 million years during the Pliocene.^[6] In contrast, coral reefs in their modern form were established much earlier, during the Miocene.^[5]

A 2012 phylogenetic analysis of 16 of the 18 Chlorurus species recovered 5 major monophyletic clades.^[5]

There are 18 species:^[4]

More information Species, Terminal phase ...

Species	Terminal phase	Initial phase
Chlorurus atrilunula (Randall & Bruce, 1983)
Chlorurus bleekeri (de Beaufort, 1940)
Chlorurus bowersi (Snyder, 1909)
Chlorurus capistratoides (Bleeker, 1847)
Chlorurus cyanescens (Valenciennes, 1840)
Chlorurus enneacanthus (Lacépède, 1802)
Chlorurus frontalis (Valenciennes, 1840)
Chlorurus genazonatus (Randall & Bruce, 1983)
Chlorurus gibbus (Rüppell, 1829)
Chlorurus japanensis (Bloch, 1789)
Chlorurus microrhinos (Bleeker, 1854)
Chlorurus oedema (Snyder, 1909)
Chlorurus perspicillatus (Steindachner, 1879)
Chlorurus rhakoura Randall & Anderson, 1997
Chlorurus sordidus (Forsskål, 1775)
Chlorurus spilurus (Valenciennes, 1840)
Chlorurus strongylocephalus (Bleeker, 1855)
Chlorurus troschelii (Bleeker, 1853)

Close