Schizothoracinae

Schizothoracinae Temporal range: Oligocene–present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Schizothorax species from the Ghori river, Pithoragarh, India. Locally called Asela
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Cypriniformes
Family:	Cyprinidae
Subfamily:	Schizothoracinae McClelland, 1842 [1]

Schizothoracinae, the snow barbels, ^[2] is a subfamily of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Cyprinidae, which includes the carps, barbs, minnows and related fishes. The fishes in this subfamily are found in Asia.

Genera

Schizopygopsinae contains the following genera: ^[3]

• Aspiorhynchus Kessler, 1879
• Diptychus Steindachner, 1866
• Percocypris Y. T. Chu, 1935
• Schizopyge Heckel, 1847
• Schizothorax Heckel, 1838

Three fossil genera are also known, all from the Tibetan Plateau: ^[4]

• † Hsianwenia Chang et al, 2008 (Pliocene of China)
• † Paleoschizothorax Yang et al., 2018 (Oligocene of China) ^[5]
• † Plesioschizothorax Wu & Chen, 1980 (Miocene of China)

Fossils of Paleoschizothorax suggest that early schizothoracines originally inhabited the large, swampy river basins, such as the Qaidam Basin, that existed on the Tibetan Plateau prior to significant uplift of the Himalayas. Following the uplift of the mountain range, many schizothoracines became adapted to fast-flowing high altitude rivers. Others, such as Schizothorax species found in southern China, continued to inhabit a low-lying subtropical environment. ^[5]

References

1. Richard van der Laan; William N. Eschmeyer & Ronald Fricke (2014). "Family-group names of recent fishes". Zootaxa. 3882 (2): 1–230. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.3882.1.1 . PMID   25543675.
2. "Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes Classification". Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes . California Academy of Sciences . Retrieved 2 January 2024.
3. Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Schizothoracinae". Catalog of Fishes . California Academy of Sciences . Retrieved 1 January 2024.
4. Yang, Tao; Wu, Feixiang; Zhang, Chi; He, Pengju; He, Dekui; Yang, Shuang; Qu, Qingming; Liu, Fujiang (2025-09-15). "Redescription of Plesioschizothorax macrocephalus (Cyprinidae, Schizothoracini) from the Miocene of Lunpola Basin, Central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and its paleobiogeographic and paleogeographical implications". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 674: 113035. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2025.113035. ISSN   0031-0182.
5. Yang, Tao; Zhang, Li; Li, Wenjia; Jia, Jingwei; Han, Lei; Zhang, Yuxin; Chen, Yingquan; Yan, Defei (2018-03-04). "New schizothoracine from Oligocene of Qaidam Basin, northern Tibetan Plateau, China, and its significance". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 38 (2): e1442840. doi:10.1080/02724634.2018.1442840. ISSN   0272-4634.