Saxatilia | |
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Saxatilia saxatilis | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Cichliformes |
Family: | Cichlidae |
Subfamily: | Cichlinae |
Tribe: | Geophagini |
Genus: | Saxatilia Varella, Kullander, Menezes, López-Fernández & Oliveira, 2023 |
Type species | |
Perca saxatilis Linnaeus, 1758
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Saxatilia is a South American cichlid genus in the genus group Geophagini. The genus was only erected in mid-2023 by four South American ichthyologists and their Swedish colleague Sven O. Kullander, and the name is a near-tautonym of the chosen type species. Previously, the species placed in Saxatilia belonged to the genus Crenicichla and formed the Crenicichla saxatilis species complex.[1] Of all the genera of pike cichlids, Saxatilia has the widest distribution area. It occurs in the Amazon Basin, in the drainage basin of the Orinoco, in the entire river basin of the Río de la Plata, the Río Paraná and the Río Uruguay, in the coastal rivers of the Guyanas, on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, in the coastal rivers of northeastern Brazil and in the lagoons Lagoa dos Patos and Lagoa Mirim in the south of Brazil.[2]