Benthophilinae

Benthophilinae
The pale monkey goby (Neogobius fluviatilis) and the dark bighead goby (Ponticola kessleri) are representatives of Benthophilinae
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Gobiiformes
Family: Gobiidae
Subfamily: Benthophilinae
Beling & Iljin, 1927
Type genus
Benthophilus
Eichwald, 1831
Genera

See text

The Benthophilinae are a subfamily of gobies endemic to the Ponto-Caspian region (including the Marmara, Black, Azov, Caspian, and Aral Seas).[1] The subfamily includes about 50 species. The representatives of the subfamily have fused pelvic fins and elongated dorsal and anal fins.[2] They are distinguished from the closely related subfamily Gobiinae by the absence of a swimbladder in adults and location of the uppermost rays of the pectoral fins within the fin membrane.[3]

The Catalog of Fishes still considers these fishes as belonging to the subfamily Gobiinae.[4]

  1. ^ Simonović P.D., Nikolić V.P., Skóra K.E. (1996) Vertebral number in Ponto-Caspian gobies: phylogenetic relevance. J. Fish Biol., 49: 1027–1029.
  2. ^ Miller P.J. (1986) Gobiidae. In: Whitehead P.J.P., Bauchot M.-L., Hureau J.-C., Nielsen J., Tortonese E. (eds.) Fishes of the North-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Vol. 3. UNESCO, Paris.
  3. ^ Pinchuk V.I. (1991) K voprosu o grupirovkakh vidov v predelakh roda Neogobius (Perciformes). Voprosy Ikhtiologii, 31: 380–393.
  4. ^ W. Eschmeyer (2015) Catalog of Fishes Archived May 3, 2015, at the Wayback Machine California Academy of Sciences (1 Mar 2015)