Cottus (genus)

Bullhead ( Cottus gobio )

Cottus is a species-rich genus of fish from the family of sculpins ( Cottidae ). The more than 60 species of the genus are the only living in freshwater sculpins and come in cold rivers, streams and lakes in the northern hemisphere in Europe, North America and North Asia before. In Germany, the bullhead occur (C. gobio ), the Schelde bullhead (C. perifretum ), the Siberian bullhead (C. poecilopus ) and the Rhine bullhead (C. rhenanus ).

Features

Cottus species are 6-30 centimeters long. They are thick, broad head with a large mouth and a tapered back to the tail fin body. The pectoral fins are large, the pelvic fins are far forward below the pectoral fins. The hartstrahlige and the longer, weichstrahlige part of the dorsal fin are clearly separated from each other by an indentation. Cottus species are colored usually camouflaging brown, gray or blackish. They feed on bottom-dwelling, invertebrates and fish fry. In adapting to their ground-dwelling lifestyle adult animals have no swim bladder.

System

Cottus is not a monophyletic genus, but a paraphyletic collection of all freshwater sculpin species that occur outside of Lake Baikal. The sculpins of Lake Baikal are classified into three distinct families, the Baikal sculpins ( Cottocomephoridae ) and living in deep water deepwater sculpins ( Abyssocottidae ) and Baikal oil fish ( Comephoridae ). Since these are but emerged in an adaptive radiation from an immigrant, originally living in Siberian rivers freshwater bullhead, the three families of Lake Baikal sculpins are phylogenetically within the genus Cottus.

Within the genus Cottus can distinguish several clades that were named after genera that have been synonymized with Cottus.

Cottopsis clade

Uranium Idea clade

Baikal clade

C. beldingii, C. leiopomus, C. greenei

Cottus clade

C. hangiongensis, C. poecilopus, C. pollux, C. Clean

Cephalocottus clade

Leptocottus armatus

Cottus kazika

  • Cottopsis clade Cottus aleuticus Gilbert, 1896
  • Cottus asper Richardson, 1836
  • Cottus asperrimus Rutter, 1908
  • Cottus gulosus ( Girard, 1854)
  • Cottus klamathensis Gilbert, 1898
  • Cottus marginatus ( Bean, 1881)
  • Cottus perplexus Gilbert & Evermann, 1894
  • Cottus pitensis Bailey & Bond, 1963
  • Cottus princeps Gilbert, 1898
  • Cottus baileyi Robins, 1961
  • Cottus bairdii Girard, 1850
  • Cottus bendirei ( Bean, 1881)
  • Cottus caeruleomentum Kinziger, Raesly & Neely, 2000
  • Cottus carolinae ( Gill, 1861)
  • Cottus cognatus Richardson, 1836
  • Cottus extensus Bailey & Bond, 1963
  • Cottus girardi Robins, 1961
  • Cottus hubbsi Bailey & Dimick, 1949
  • Cottus hypselurus Robins & Robison, 1985
  • Cottus paulus Williams, 2000
  • Cottus rhotheus (Smith, 1882)
  • Cottus specus Adams et. al., 2013
  • Deepwater sculpins ( Abyssocottidae )
  • Baikal oil fish ( Comephoridae )
  • Baikal sculpins ( Cottocomephoridae )
  • Cottus ferrugineus Heckel & Kner, 1858
  • Bullhead ( Cottus gobio ) Linnaeus, 1758
  • Cottus ricei ( Nelson, 1876)
  • Cottus sibiricus Kessler in Warpachowski, 1889
  • Cottus amblystomopsis Schmidt, 1904
  • Cottus nozawae Snyder, 1911
  • Cottus aturi Freyhof, Kottelat & Nolte, 2005
  • Cottus beldingii Eigenmann & Eigenmann, 1891
  • Cottus confusus Bailey & Bond, 1963
  • Cottus czerskii Mountain, 1913
  • Cottus duranii Freyhof, Kottelat & Nolte, 2005
  • Utah bullhead ( Cottus echinatus ) Bailey & Bond, 1963
  • Cottus greenei ( Gilbert & Culver in Jordan & Evermann, 1898)
  • Cottus hangiongensis Mori, 1930
  • Cottus hispaniolensis Bacescu & Bacescu - Mester, 1964
  • Cottus kanawhae Robins, 2005
  • Cottus kazika Jordan & Starks, 1904
  • Cottus kolymensis Sideleva & Goto, 2012
  • Cottus koreanus Fujii, Choi & Yabe, 2005
  • Cottus koshewnikowi Gratzianov, 1907
  • Cottus leiopomus Gilbert & Evermann, 1894
  • Cottus metae Freyhof, Kottelat & Nolte, 2005
  • Cottus microstomus Heckel, 1837
  • Cottus nasal Mountain, 1933
  • Scheldt bullhead ( Cottus perifretum ) Freyhof, Kottelat & Nolte, 2005
  • Petit- bullhead ( Cottus petiti ) Bacescu & Bacescu - Mester, 1964
  • Cottus pollux Günther, 1873
  • Siberian bullhead ( Cottus poecilopus ) Heckel, 1837
  • Cottus reinii Hilgendorf, 1879
  • Rhine bullhead ( Cottus rhenanus ) Freyhof, Kottelat & Nolte, 2005
  • Cottus rondeleti Freyhof, Kottelat & Nolte, 2005
  • Cottus sabaudicus Sideleva, 2009
  • Cottus scaturigo Freyhof, Kottelat & Nolte, 2005
  • Cottus schitsuumsh Lemoine et al., 2014
  • Cottus spinulosus Kessler, 1872
  • Cottus szanaga Dybowski, 1869
  • Cottus tallapoosae Neely, Williams & Mayden, 2007
  • Cottus tenuis ( Evermann & Meek, 1898)
  • Cottus transsilvaniae Freyhof, Kottelat & Nolte, 2005
  • Cottus volki Taranetz, 1933
Perciformes Copeia Digital Object Identifier FishBase
205041
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