Bothidae

Lefteye flounders Temporal range: Early Oligocene–present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scaldfish, Arnoglossus laterna
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Carangiformes
Suborder:	Pleuronectoidei
Family:	Bothidae Smitt, 1892
Type genus
Bothus Rafinesque, 1810
Genera
See text

Bothidae or lefteye flounders are a family of flounders. They are called "lefteye flounders" because most species lie on the sea bottom on their right sides, with both eyes on their left sides. ^[1] The family is also distinguished by the presence of spines on the snout and near the eyes. ^[2]

Lefteye flounders vary considerably in size between the more than 160 species, ranging from 4.5 cm (1.8 in) to 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in length. ^[2]

Taxonomy

The following genera are placed in this family:

• Arnoglossus
• Asterorhombus
• Bothus
• Chascanopsetta
• Crossorhombus
• Engyophrys
• Engyprosopon
• Grammatobothus
• Japonolaeops
• Kamoharaia
• Laeops
• Lophonectes
• Monolene
• Neolaeops
• Parabothus
• Perissias
• Psettina
• Taeniopsetta
• Tosarhombus
• Trichopsetta

The following fossil genera are also known:

• † Miobothus Chanet & Schultz, 1994 (Middle Miocene of Austria) ^[3]
• † Oligobothus Baciu & Chanet, 2002 (Early Oligocene of Romania and Poland) ^{[4] [5]}
• † Oranobothus Chanet, 1996 (latest Miocene of Algeria) ^[6]

Gallery

• 
  Scaldfish (Arnoglossus laterna) larva
• 
  Wide-eyed flounder, Bothus podas
• 
  Laeops macrophthalmus
• 
  Monolene atrimana
• 
  Deepwater flounder, Monolene sessilicauda
• 
  Sash flounder, Trichopsetta ventralis

See also

• Pleuronectidae, the righteye family of flounders

References

1. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Family Bothidae". FishBase . February 2006 version.
2. Chapleau, Francois & Amaoka, Kunio (1998). Paxton, J.R. & Eschmeyer, W.N. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Fishes. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 224–225. ISBN   0-12-547665-5.
3. Chanet, Bruno; Schultz, Orwin (1994). "Pleuronectiform fishes from the Upper Badenian (Middle Miocene) of St. Margarethen (Austria)". Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien (96): 95–115.
4. Campbell, Matthew A.; Chanet, Bruno; Chen, Jhen-Nien; Lee, Mao-Ying; Chen, Wei-Jen (2019). "Origins and relationships of the Pleuronectoidei: Molecular and morphological analysis of living and fossil taxa". Zoologica Scripta. 48 (5): 640–656. doi:10.1111/zsc.12372. ISSN   1463-6409.
5. Kovalchuk, Oleksandr; Bienkowska-Wasiluk, Małgorzata; Dubikovska, Anastasiia; Świdnicka, Ewa; Stefaniak, Krzysztof; Khekalo, Olga; Barkaszi, Zoltán (2025). "Oligocene flatfishes (Teleostei, Pleuronectiformes) of the Outer Carpathian Basin" . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 0 e2520490. doi:10.1080/02724634.2025.2520490. ISSN   0272-4634.
6. "Oranobothus arambourgi n.g. n.sp.(Pisces, Pleuronectiformes, Bothidae) provenant du Messinien (Miocène supérieur) d'Oran (Algérie)". Bulletin du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, 4ème série – section C – Sciences de la Terre, Paléontologie, Géologie, Minéralogie. 18 (4): 555–568. 1996.