Gasterosteus is a genus of ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Gasterosteidae, the sticklebacks. These fishes are found in freshwater, brackish water and marine habitats in the Holarctic region.
Species
There are currently 6 recognized species in this genus:
- Gasterosteus aculeatus Linnaeus, 1758 (Three-spined stickleback)
- †Gasterosteus crenobiontus Băcescu & R. Mayer, 1956 (Techirghiol stickleback)
- Gasterosteus islandicus Sauvage, 1874 (Iceland stickleback)
- Gasterosteus microcephalus Girard, 1854 (Smallhead stickleback)
- Gasterosteus nipponicus Higuchi, Sakai & A. Goto, 2014
- Gasterosteus wheatlandi Putnam, 1867 (Black-spotted stickleback)
Additionally there are a number of fossil species including:
- †Gasterosteus abnormis Gretchina, 1981 (middle Miocene of Sakhalin, Russia)
- †Gasterosteus doryssus (Jordan, 1907) (=Merriamella doryssa Jordan, 1907, G. apodus Mural, 1973) (late Miocene of Nevada, USA)
- †Gasterosteus kamoensis Nazarkin, Yabumoto & Urabe, 2013 (Late Miocene of Japan)
- †Gasterosteus orientalis Sychevskaya, 1981 (middle Miocene of Kamchatka, Russia)
Fossils of essentially modern three-spined sticklebacks, assigned to G. aculeatus, are known from the mid-late Miocene of California, USA.
References
