Acanthurus

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

Genus of fishes

title: "Acanthurus" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["acanthurus", "acanthurini", "marine-fish-genera", "taxa-named-by-peter-forsskål"] description: "Genus of fishes" topic_path: "general/acanthurus" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acanthurus" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Genus of fishes ::

| fossil_range =
Early Eocene to Present | image = Acanthurus leucosternon 01.JPG | image_caption = Acanthurus leucosternon | image2 = Acanthurus achilles (cropped).jpg | image2_caption = Acanthurus achilles | taxon = Acanthurus | authority = Forsskål, 1775 | type_species = Acanthurus triostegus | type_species_authority = (Linnaeus, 1758) | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = See text | synonyms = {{collapsible list|bullets = true|title=List | Acronurus Gronow in Gray 1854 | Aspisurus Lacépède, 1802 | Ctenodon Swainson, 1839 | Harpurina Fowler & Bean, 1929 | Harpurus Johann Reinhold Forster, 1788 | Rhomboteuthis Fowler, 1944 | Rhombotides Bleeker, 1863 | Theutis Bonnaterre, 1788 | Theutys Goüan, 1770 | synonyms_ref =

Acanthurus is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Acanthuridae, which includes the surgeonfishes, unicornfishes and tangs, found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean. They are found in tropical oceans, especially near coral reefs, with most species in the Indo-Pacific but a few are found in the Atlantic Ocean. As other members of the family, they have a pair of spines, one on either side of the base of the tail which are dangerously sharp.

Taxonomy

Acanthurus was first proposed as a subgenus of Chaetodon in 1775 by the Swedish-speaking Finnish explorer, orientalist and naturalist Peter Forsskål, although he recognised that it was probably different from Chaetodon even at the family level. In 1856 Desmarest designated Teuthis hepatus, which had been described from a type now known to have been collected at Ambon Island in the Moluccas (other erroneous type localities were named) in 1758 by Linnaeus, as the type species of the genus. T. hepatus is a synonym of Paracanthurus hepatus and this would make Paracanthurus synonymous with Acanthurus. An alternative would be to use the name Harpurus proposed as a monospecific genus in 1788 by Johann Reinhold Forster when he described Harpurus fasciatus, a synonym of Acanthurus triostegus. It has been proposed that the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature should be petitioned to stabilise the genera Acanthurus and Paracanthurus. In 2014 it was proposed that the type species of Acanthurus should be Chaetodon sohal, which had also been described by Forsskål in 1775 as a member of the subgenus alongside C. bifasciatus, C. nigrofuscus and C. unicornis, and had been designated as the type species by Jordan and Evermann in 1917.

Paraphyly

It has been proposed that the genus Ctenochaetus should be merged with Acanthurus, as Acanthurus is currently paraphyletic. All Ctenochaetus species are nested within Acanthurus, while A. nubilis and A. pyroferus are furthermore nested within Ctenochaetus. The 5th edition of Fishes of the World recognises these two genera as valid and classifies them as the two genera in the tribe Acanthurini of the subfamily Acanthurinae within the family Acanthuridae.

Etymology

The genus name Acanthurus comes from Ancient Greek ἄκανθα (ákantha), meaning "spine", and οὐρά (ourá), meaning "tail", a reference to the scalpel-like bony plates on the caudal peduncle, these also give rise to the vernacular English names surgeonfish and doctorfish.

Species

There are currently 41 recognized species in this genus: ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Japanese_Surgeonfish_(Acanthurus_japonicus)_(8481921389).jpg" caption="A. japonicus]]''"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Acanthurus_polyzona_Réunion.JPG" caption="A. polyzona]]''"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Acanthurus_lineatus_Reunion.jpg" caption="A. lineatus]]''"] ::

Characteristics

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Acanthurus_spine_peduncle.jpg" caption="''A. xanthopterus'']] tail spine"] ::

Acanthurus surgeonfishes have disc shaped, highly laterally compressed bodies with a steep dorsal profile to the head. They have a small mouth positioned low on the head and the fish can protrude the jaws. The 8 to 28 teeth in the jaws are fixed and have flattened, serrated tips. There are typically 11 spines in the dorsal fin. There is a single spine on each side of the caudal peduncle and these can be pressed down into a groove.

The Indo-Pacific yellowfin surgeonfish (A. xanthopterus) is the largest species with a maximum published total length of 70 cm while the smallest is the black-barred surgeonfish (A. polyzona) with a maximum published total length of 11 cm.

Distribution

Acanthrus surgeonfishes are distributed around the world in tropical waters.

References

References

  1. link. (23 July 2011 ''Bulletins of American Paleontology, 363: 1–560.'')
  2. {{Cof family
  3. {{Cof genus
  4. [[Ronald Fricke]]. (2008). "Authorship, availability and validity of fish names described by Peter (Pehr) Simon Forsskål and Johann Christian Fabricius in the 'Descriptiones animalium' by Carsten Niebuhr in 1775 (Pisces)". Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde A, Neue Serie..
  5. Vahe D. Demirjian. (2014). "''Acanthurus'' Forsskål, 1775 (Osteichthyes, ACANTHURIDAE): proposed conservation by designation of ''Chaetodon sohal'' Forsskål, 1775 as the type species". Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature.
  6. (2013). "A multi-locus timetree of surgeonfishes (Acanthuridae, Percomorpha), with revised family taxonomy". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
  7. F. Cowman, Peter. (2019-02-12). "Supplementary material from "The evolution of traits and functions in herbivorous coral reef fishes through space and time"". Proceedings of the Royal Society.
  8. (2016). "Fishes of the World". Wiley.
  9. (12 January 2021). "Order ACANTHURIFORMES (part 2): Families EPHIPPIDAE, LEIOGNATHIDAE, SCATOPHAGIDAE, ANTIGONIIDAE, SIGANIDAE, CAPROIDAE, LUVARIDAE, ZANCLIDAE and ACANTHURIDAE". Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara.
  10. {{FishBase genus. (2023)
  11. Carpenter, K.E., Williams, J.T. & Santos, M.D. (2017): [http://oceansciencefoundation.org/josf/josf25d.pdf ''Acanthurus albimento'', a new species of surgeonfish (Acanthuriformes: Acanthuridae) from northeastern Luzon, Philippines, with comments on zoogeography.] ''Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 25: 33–46.''
  12. Randall, J.E., DiBattista, J.D. & Wilcox, C. (2011): ''Acanthurus nigros'' Günther, a Valid Species of Surgeonfish, Distinct from the Hawaiian ''A. nigroris'' Valenciennes. ''Pacific Science, 65 (2): 265–275.''
  13. Bernal, M.A. & Rocha, L.A. (2011): [http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2011/f/zt02905p068.pdf ''Acanthurus tractus'' Poey, 1860, a valid western Atlantic species of surgeonfish (Teleostei, Acanthuridae), distinct from ''Acanthurus bahianus'' Castelnau, 1855.] ''Zootaxa, 2905: 63–68.''
  14. "Genus: Acanthurus, Common Surgeonfish, Surgeonfishes, Tangs". [[Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

acanthurusacanthurinimarine-fish-generataxa-named-by-peter-forsskål