| Sciades | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Sciades herzbergii | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Siluriformes |
| Family: | Ariidae |
| Subfamily: | Ariinae |
| Genus: | Sciades J. P. Müller & Troschel, 1849 |
| Type species | |
| Sciades emphysetus Müller & Troschel, 1849 | |
Sciades is a genus of sea catfishes mostly found along the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea coasts of Central and South America. One species, S. dowii, occurs on the Pacific side from Panama to Ecuador, another, S. paucus, is a freshwater form found in Australia, while S. sona is a widespread species found along the Indian Ocean coasts of South Asia east into the Pacific to Polynesia. The genus Ariopsis has been merged with Sciades by some authorities. [1]
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's oceans, with an area of about 106,460,000 square kilometers. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth's surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area. It separates the "Old World" from the "New World".
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and south west, to the north by the Greater Antilles starting with Cuba, to the east by the Lesser Antilles, and to the south by the north coast of South America.
Central America is located on the southern tip of North America, or is sometimes defined as a subcontinent of the Americas, bordered by Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south. Central America consists of seven countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. The combined population of Central America has been estimated to be 41,739,000 and 42,688,190.
Currently, eight described species are in this genus:
- Sciades couma (Valenciennes, 1840) (Couma sea-catfish)
- Sciades dowii (T. N. Gill, 1863) (brown sea-catfish)
- Sciades herzbergii (Bloch, 1794) (Pemecou sea catfish)
- Sciades parkeri (Traill, 1832) (gillbacker sea catfish)
- Sciades passany (Valenciennes, 1840) (Passany sea catfish)
- Sciades paucus (Kailola, 2000)
- Sciades proops (Valenciennes, 1840) (crucifix sea catfish)
- Sciades sona (F. Hamilton, 1822) (Sona sea catfish)
Achille Valenciennes was a French zoologist.
Theodore Nicholas Gill was an American ichthyologist, mammalogist, malacologist and librarian.
Marcus Elieser Bloch (1723–1799) was a German medical doctor and naturalist. Although he had limited education, he became a teacher in Hamburg, learned German and Latin and studied anatomy. He later settled in Berlin where he became a physician. Always interested in natural history, he amassed a private collection of natural objects. He is generally considered one of the most important ichthyologists of the 18th century, and wrote many papers on natural history, comparative anatomy, and physiology.
