Schindleria

Schindleria is a genus of marine fish. It was the only genus of family Schindleriidae, among the Gobioidei of order Perciformes but is now classified under the Gobiidae in the Gobiiformes.[1] The type species is S. praematura, Schindler's fish. The Schindleria species are known generically as Schindler's fishes after German zoologist Otto Schindler (1906–1959),[2] or infantfishes. They are native to the southern Pacific Ocean, from the South China Sea to the Great Barrier Reef off eastern Australia.[3]

This article is about a genus of fish. For the song The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus) by rock group Yes, see Fragile (Yes album).

Schindleria
Schindleria macrodentata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Gobiiformes
Family: Gobiidae
Genus: Schindleria
Giltay, 1934
Type species
Hemiramphus praematurus
Schindler, 1930
Species

See text.

Description

The infant fishes are so called because they retain many of their larval characteristics (an example of neoteny). Their elongated bodies are transparent, and many of the bones never develop. S. praematura reaches a length of 2.5 cm (0.98 in). All of the Schindleria species are reef fishes. They may be among the most common fish of the reefs, based on the results of plankton tows, but because of their transparency and small size, they are infrequently seen in life.

A recently described species, the stout infantfish, S. brevipinguis, was briefly the world's smallest known vertebrate at 8 mm (about one-third inch), smaller even than the dwarf gobies, until the new record was set by the 7.9-mm Paedocypris progenetica in early 2006 and supplanted by the 7.7-mm frog Paedophryne amauensis in 2012.[4]

Apparently several (at least eight) further Schindleria species, native to the Ryukyu Islands, are yet to be described formally.

Species

See also

References
  1. J. S. Nelson; T. C. Grande; M. V. H. Wilson (2016). Fishes of the World (5th ed.). Wiley. p. 752. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6.
  2. Johnson, David G.; Brothers, Edward B. (1993). "Schindleria: A Paedomorphic Goby (Teleostei: Gobioidei)". Bulletin of Marine Science. 52 (1): 441–471.
  3. Watson, William; Walker, Jr., H. J. (2004). "The World's Smallest Vertebrate, Schindleria brevipinguis, A New Paedomorphic Species in the Family Schindleriidae (Perciformes: Gobioidei)" (PDF). Records of the Australian Museum. Australian Museum. 56 (2): 139–142. doi:10.3853/j.0067-1975.56.2004.1429. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
  4. Rittmeyer, Eric N.; Allison, Allen; Gründler, Michael C.; Thompson, Derrick K.; Austin, Christopher C. (2012). "Ecological guild evolution and the discovery of the world's smallest vertebrate". PLOS ONE. 7 (1): e29797. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029797. PMC 3256195. PMID 22253785.

Sources
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