Cottidae

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Family of ray-finned fishes

title: "Cottidae" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["cottidae", "perciformes-families", "extant-oligocene-first-appearances", "taxa-named-by-charles-lucien-bonaparte"] description: "Family of ray-finned fishes" topic_path: "general/cottidae" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottidae" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Family of ray-finned fishes ::

| fossil_range = | image = Cottus cognatus.jpg | image_caption = Cottus cognatus | taxon = Cottidae | authority = Bonaparte, 1831 | subdivision_ranks = Subfamilies and genera | subdivision = see text | synonyms = * Abyssocottinae Berg, 1907

  • Cottinae Bonaparte, 1831

The Cottidae are a family of fish in the superfamily Cottoidea, the sculpins. Following major taxonomic revisions, it contains about 118 species in 18 genera, the vast majority of which are either restricted to freshwater habitats or are amphidromous. They are referred to simply as cottids to avoid confusion with sculpins of other families.

Cottids are distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, especially in boreal and colder temperate climates. In Lake Baikal, many cottids live in deep water, below 170 m. There are 24 known species in seven genera. These include, for instance, Abyssocottus korotneffi and Cottinella boulengeri which are among the deepest-living freshwater fish. Baikal is the deepest lake on Earth (1642 m) and sculpins occupy even its greatest depths.

Most cottids are small fish, under 10 cm in length.

The earliest known skeletal remains of cottids are of Cottus cervicornis (taxonomy uncertain) from the Early Oligocene of Belgium. Cottids become more common in the fossil record from the Miocene onwards.

Taxonomy

The Cottidae was first recognised as a taxonomic grouping by the French zoologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1831. More recently, phylogenetic studies have redefined Cottidae to be largely restricted to the freshwater sculpins, i.e. Cottus, Leptocottus, Mesocottus, Trachidermus, and the species flock in and around Lake Baikal, and the marine genera are placed in the Psychrolutidae. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes follows this classification.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Comephorus_baikalensis.jpg" caption="''[[Comephorus baikalensis]]''"] ::

Based on Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (2025):

Evolution

Molecular studies based on mitochondrial DNA suggest that the Lake Baikal cottids, previously placed in the subfamilies Abyssocottinae, Cottocomephorinae & Comephorinae (Baikal oilfish), together make a monophyletic group that has originated and diversified within the lake relative recently, since the Pliocene. The ancestors of this species flock comprising more than 30 species belonged to the widespread freshwater sculpin genus Cottus (in Cottidae). The Abyssocottidae itself appears as a natural group within this radiation, except that also the genus Batrachocottus should be included.

References

References

  1. (2014). "Family-group names of Recent fishes". Zootaxa.
  2. "CAS - Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes - Genera/Species by Family/Subfamily".
  3. Kane, E. A. and T. E. Higham. (2012). [http://www.biomechanics.ucr.edu/Kane-Higham-2012.pdf Life in the flow lane: differences in pectoral fin morphology suggest transitions in station-holding demand across species of marine sculpin.] {{Webarchive. link. (2020-10-22 ''Zoology'' (Jena) 115(4), 223–32.)
  4. (2014). "Phylogeny and taxonomy of sculpins, sandfishes, and snailfishes (Perciformes: Cottoidei) with comments on the phylogenetic significance of their early-life-history specializations". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
  5. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. (Eds.) [http://www.fishbase.org/summary/FamilySummary.php?ID=584 Abyssocottidae.] FishBase. 2011.
  6. Jakubowski, M. (1997). [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4687(199708)233:2%3C105::AID-JMOR2%3E3.0.CO;2-5/abstract Morphometry of gill respiratory area in the Baikalian deep-water sculpins ''Abyssocottus korotneffi'' and ''Cottinella boulengeri'' (Abyssocottidae, Cottoidei).] ''Journal of Morphology'' 233(2), 105–12.
  7. Hunt, D. M., et al. (1997). [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9417898 Molecular evolution of the cottoid fish endemic to Lake Baikal deduced from nuclear DNA evidence.] ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' 8(3), 415–22.
  8. Eschmeyer, W. N.. (1998). "Encyclopedia of Fishes". Academic Press.
  9. Nazarkin, M. V.. (2017-01-01). "A new horned sculpin (Pisces: Cottidae) from the Miocene of Sakhalin Island, Russia". Paleontological Journal.
  10. (2016). "Fishes of the World". Wiley.
  11. {{Cof family
  12. Smith, Gerald R.. (1975). "Fishes of the Pliocene Glenns Ferry Formation, Southwest Idaho; Fishes of the Miocene - Pliocene Deer Butte Formation, Southeast Oregon Claude W. Hibbard Memorial Volume V". Papers on Paleontology.
  13. (2003). "Endemic diversification of the monophyletic cottoid fish species flock in Lake Baikal explored with mtDNA sequencing]". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.

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cottidaeperciformes-familiesextant-oligocene-first-appearancestaxa-named-by-charles-lucien-bonaparte