Bichir

''For the Lebanese-Mexican family Bichir, read Bichir family

The bichirs are a family, Polypteridae, of archaic-looking ray-finned fishes, the sole family in the order Polypteriformes. They have thick bonelike scales and a series of dorsal finlets instead of a single fin. Their jaw structure more closely resembles that of the tetrapods than that of the teleost fishes. All species occur in freshwater habitats in Africa. They are popular subjects of public and large hobby aquaria.

Species

There are eighteen extant species and subspecies in two genera:["Polypteridae"]. FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. February 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.

Genus Erpetoichthys
* Reedfish, Erpetoichthys calabaricus Smith, 1865.
Genus Polypterus
* Guinean bichir, Polypterus ansorgii Boulenger, 1910.
* Nile bichir, Polypterus bichir bichir Lacépède, 1803.
* Polypterus bichir katangae Poll, 1941.
* Bichir, Polypterus bichir lapradei Steindachner, 1869.
* Barred bichir, Polypterus delhezi Boulenger, 1899.
* Polypterus endlicheri congicus Boulenger, 1898.
* Saddled bichir, Polypterus endlicheri endlicheri Heckel, 1847.
* Polypterus mokelembembe Schliewen & Schafer, 2006.
* Ornate bichir, Polypterus ornatipinnis Boulenger, 1902.
* Polypterus palmas buettikoferi Steindachner, 1891.
* Shortfin bichir, Polypterus palmas palmas Ayres, 1850.
* Polypterus palmas polli Gosse, 1988.
* West African bichir, Polypterus retropinnis Vaillant, 1899.
* Polypterus senegalus meridionalis Poll, 1941.
* Gray bichir, Polypterus senegalus senegalus Cuvier, 1829.
* Polypterus teugelsi Britz, 2004.
* Mottled bichir, Polypterus weeksii Boulenger, 1898.

Extinct species include:

Polypterus faraou Otero et al., 2006 — late Miocene.

References

External link

[FishBase entry for Polypteridae]

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