Gasterosteus

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 <small>Linnaeus, 1758</small> (Three-spined stickleback)
• Gasterosteus crenobiontus <small>Băcescu & R. Mayer, 1956</small> (Techirghiol stickleback)
• Gasterosteus islandicus <small>Sauvage, 1874</small> (Iceland stickleback)
• Gasterosteus microcephalus <small>Girard, 1854</small> (Smallhead stickleback)
• Gasterosteus nipponicus <small>Higuchi, Sakai & A. Goto, 2014</small>
• Gasterosteus wheatlandi <small>Putnam, 1867</small> (Black-spotted stickleback)

Additionally there are a number of fossil species including:

• Gasterosteus abnormis <small>Gretchina, 1981</small> (middle Miocene of Sakhalin, Russia)
• Gasterosteus doryssus <small>(Jordan, 1907)</small> (=Merriamella doryssa <small>Jordan, 1907</small>, G. apodus <small>Mural, 1973</small>) (late Miocene of Nevada, USA)
• Gasterosteus kamoensis <small>Nazarkin, Yabumoto & Urabe, 2013</small> (Late Miocene of Japan)
• Gasterosteus orientalis <small>Sychevskaya, 1981</small> (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