Fundulus


Fundulus is a genus of ray-finned fishes in the superfamily Funduloidea, family Fundulidae. It belongs to the order of toothcarps, and therein the large suborder Cyprinodontoidei. Most of its closest living relatives are egg-laying, with the notable exception of the splitfin livebearers.
They are usually smallish; most species reaching a length of at most 4 in when fully grown. However, a few larger species exist, with the giant killifish and the northern studfish growing to twice the genus' average size.
Many of the 40-odd species are commonly known by the highly ambiguous name "killifish", or the somewhat less ambiguous "topminnow". "Studfish" is a quite unequivocal vernacular name applied to some other Fundulus species; it is not usually used to refer to the genus as a whole.
Fundulus have evolved to occupy a wide range of aquatic ecosystems, including marine, estuarine, and freshwater, making it a good comparative model system for studying evolutionary divergence between marine and freshwater environments. To assist with this research, Oxford Nanopore long-read reference genomes have been sequenced for F. xenicus, F. catenatus, F. nottii, and F. olivaceus''.''

Species

There are currently 39 recognized species in this genus:
  • Fundulus albolineatus C. H. Gilbert, 1891
  • Fundulus bermudae Günther, 1874
  • Fundulus bifax Cashner & Rogers, 1988
  • Fundulus blairae Wiley & D. D. Hall, 1975
  • Fundulus catenatus
  • Fundulus chrysotus
  • Fundulus cingulatus Valenciennes, 1846
  • Fundulus confluentus Goode & T. H. Bean, 1879
  • Fundulus diaphanus
  • * Fundulus diaphanus diaphanus
  • * Fundulus diaphanus menona D. S. Jordan & Copeland, 1877
  • Fundulus dispar
  • Fundulus escambiae
  • Fundulus euryzonus Suttkus & Cashner, 1981
  • Fundulus grandis S. F. Baird & Girard, 1853
  • Fundulus grandissimus C. L. Hubbs, 1936
  • Fundulus heteroclitus
  • * Fundulus heteroclitus heteroclitus
  • * Fundulus heteroclitus macrolepidotus
  • Fundulus jenkinsi
  • Fundulus julisia J. D. Williams & Etnier, 1982
  • Fundulus kansae Garman, 1895
  • Fundulus lima Vaillant, 1894
  • Fundulus lineolatus
  • Fundulus luciae
  • Fundulus majalis
  • Fundulus notatus
  • Fundulus nottii
  • Fundulus olivaceus
  • Fundulus parvipinnis Girard, 1854
  • Fundulus persimilis R. R. Miller, 1955
  • Fundulus philpisteri García-Ramírez, Contreras-Balderas & Lozano-Vilano, 2007
  • Fundulus pulvereus
  • Fundulus rathbuni D. S. Jordan & Meek, 1889
  • Fundulus relictus Able & Felley, 1988
  • Fundulus rubrifrons
  • Fundulus saguanus Rivas, 1948
  • Fundulus sciadicus Cope, 1865
  • Fundulus seminolis Girard, 1859
  • Fundulus similis
  • Fundulus stellifer
  • Fundulus waccamensis C. L. Hubbs & Raney, 1946
  • Fundulus xenicus Jordan & Gilbert, 1882
  • Fundulus zebrinus D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1883
The following fossil species are also known:
  • †Fundulus curryi R. R. Miller, 1945 - Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Death Valley, California
  • †Fundulus lariversi Abers & Stewart 1972 - Early/Middle Miocene of Nevada
  • †Fundulus ''davidae R. R. Miller, 1945 - Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Death Valley, California
  • †Fundulus detillae Hibbard & Dunkle, 1942 - Middle Pliocene of Kansas
  • †Fundulus eulepis R. R. Miller, 1945 - Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Death Valley, California
  • †Fundulus nevadensis - Late Miocene of Nevada
The Cuban killifish was formerly placed in Fundulus''.