Tadpole goby

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Tadpole goby
Temporal range: Middle Miocene to present
Benthophilus nudus.jpg
Black Sea tadpole-goby (Benthophilus nudus)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Gobiiformes
Family: Gobiidae
Subfamily: Gobiinae
Genus: Benthophilus
Eichwald, 1831
Type species
Gobius macrocephalus
Pallas, 1788
Synonyms [1]
  • AspidophilusKoumans, 1931
  • DoliichthysSauvage, 1874
  • Hexacanthusvon Nordmann, 1838

The tadpole-gobies [2] (Benthophilus), also called pugolovkas (which means "tadpole" in Russian), are a genus of Ponto-Caspian fish in the family Gobiidae.

They are distributed in the fresh and brackish waters of basins of the Black Sea, Caspian Sea and the Sea of Azov, up to salinities of about 20 ‰. They typically live in habitats such as the deep waters of the Caspian (salinity about 13 ‰) and in the deltas, estuaries and coastal waters of the Ponto-Caspian. [2]

Tadpole-gobies are small fish, never larger than 15 cm (5.9 in), and usually smaller. Their life span is about one year. After spawning they die. [2]

Species

There are currently 21 recognized species in this genus: [3]

The fossil species † Benthophilus styriacus Schwarzhans, Bradić & Bratishko, 2016 and †? Benthophilus ovisulcus Schwarzhans, Bradić & Bratishko, 2016 are known from fossil otoliths from the Middle Miocene of Romania. [4]

References

  1. ↑ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Gobiinae". Catalog of Fishes (genera). California Academy of Sciences . Retrieved 24 September 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 Boldyrev V.S.; Bogutskaya N.G. (2007). "Revision of the tadpole-gobies of the genus Benthophilus (Teleostei: Gobiidae)" (PDF). Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwaters. 18 (1): 31–96.
  3. ↑ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Benthophilus". Catalog of Fishes . California Academy of Sciences . Retrieved 24 September 2025.
  4. ↑ Schwarzhans, Werner; Ahnelt, Harald; Carnevale, Giorgio; Japundžić, Sanja; Bradić, Katarina; Bratishko, Andriy (2017-03-01). "Otoliths in situ from Sarmatian (Middle Miocene) fishes of the Paratethys. Part III: tales from the cradle of the Ponto-Caspian gobies". Swiss Journal of Palaeontology. 136 (1): 45–92. doi: 10.1007/s13358-016-0120-7 . ISSN   1664-2384.


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