Cymbacephalus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Cymbacephalus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Crocodile Fish (C. beauforti) | |
 | |
| Northern Rock Flathead (C. staigeri) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Family: | Platycephalidae |
| Genus: | Cymbacephalus Fowler, 1938 |
| Type species | |
| Platycephalus nematophthalmus | |
Cymbacephalus is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Platycephalidae, the flatheads. These fishes are found in the Indo-Pacific region.
Species
Cymbacephalus was first proposed as a genus by the American zoologist Henry Weed Fowler in 1938 with Platycephalus nematophthalmus, which had been described in 1860 by Albert Günther from the Victoria River and Port Essington in Australia, designated as its type species.[2] The genus is classified within the family Playtcephalidae, the flatheads which the 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies within the suborder Platycephaloidei in the order Scorpaeniformes.[3] The genus name is a compound of cymba, which means "cavity", and cephalus, meaning "head", alluding to the large deep pit to the rear of each eye of C. nematophthalmus.[4]
Cymbacephalus currently has four recognised species classified within it:[5]
- Cymbacephalus beauforti (Knapp, 1973) (De Beaufort's flathead)
- Cymbacephalus bosschei (Bleeker, 1860) (Small-eyed flathead)
- Cymbacephalus nematophthalmus (Günther, 1860) (Fringe-eyed flathead)
- Cymbacephalus staigeri (Castelnau, 1875) (Northern rock flathead)
Some authorities regard C. staigeri as a synonym of C. nematophthalmus but include C. parilis (McCulloch, 1873), which has been considered to be a synonym of C. staigeri, as a valid species.[2]