| Cophecheilus bamen | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Cypriniformes |
| Family: | Cyprinidae |
| Subfamily: | Labeoninae |
| Genus: | Cophecheilus Y. Zhu, E. Zhang, M. Zhang & Y.Q. Han, 2011 |
| Species: | C. bamen |
| Binomial name | |
| Cophecheilus bamen Y. Zhu, E. Zhang, M. Zhang & Y. Q. Han, 2011 | |
Cophecheilus bamen is a species of fish in the family Cyprinidae, the carps and minnows. It was described in 2011 from a tributary of the Zou-Jiang, a river in the Pearl River drainage in Jingxi County, Guangxi, China. [1] The species name bamen is from Ba Men, the local common name for this and similar fish. [1]
In biology, a species ( ) is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. Other ways of defining species include their karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology, behaviour or ecological niche. In addition, paleontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. While these definitions may seem adequate, when looked at more closely they represent problematic species concepts. For example, the boundaries between closely related species become unclear with hybridisation, in a species complex of hundreds of similar microspecies, and in a ring species. Also, among organisms that reproduce only asexually, the concept of a reproductive species breaks down, and each clone is potentially a microspecies.
Family is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy; it is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as being the "walnut family".
The Cyprinidae are the family of freshwater fishes, collectively called cyprinids, that includes the carps, the true minnows, and their relatives. Also commonly called the "carp family", or "minnow family", Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family and the largest vertebrate animal family in general, with about 3,000 species of which only 1,270 remain extant, divided into about 370 genera.. They range from about 12 mm to the 3-meter Catlocarpio siamensis. This family of fish is one of the few that do not take care of their eggs. The family belongs to the ostariophysian order Cypriniformes, of whose genera and species the cyprinids make more than two-thirds. The family name is derived from the Ancient Greek kyprînos.
This fish is distinguished from related species by the morphology of its mouth, including its lips and jaws. Specimens examined so far were an average of about 7.8 centimeters long. The species has an elongated, laterally compressed body, two pairs of long barbels, and a forked caudal fin. [1]
Morphology is a branch of biology dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features.
In fish anatomy and turtle anatomy, a barbel is a slender, whiskerlike sensory organ near the mouth. Fish that have barbels include the catfish, the carp, the goatfish, the hagfish, the sturgeon, the zebrafish, the black dragonfish and some species of shark such as the sawshark. Barbels house the taste buds of such fish and are used to search for food in murky water.
