On Gonorynchus, Gonorhynchus, Gonorinchus, Gonorhinchus and Gonorrhynchus, and some other names of labeonine fishes (Teleostei: Gonorynchidae and Cyprinidae)
Author
Kottelat, Maurice
text
Zootaxa
2016
4178
3
443
450
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.4178.3.8
f8971730-b680-42c1-a883-8a6dddf9e66d
1175-5326
163344
C3AD6591-AF2B-42C7-9548-9F37A1F90E2A
Gonorynchus
Scopoli, 1777
The
name
Gonorynchus
was made available by
Scopoli
(1777: 450)
.
Scopoli
used a non-binominal species name already created by
Gronow
(
Gronovius 1763: 55
) for a fish from the
Cape of Good Hope. The
name is not available from
Gronovius
(1763)
because this work was rejected for nomenclatural purposes by the
International Commission
on
Zoological Nomenclature
(
ICZN
1954
: 281 [Opinion 261]
).
Scopoli did not include species-group names in
Gonorynchus
and it is not clear who first included species in the genus.
Cyprinus gonorynchus
Linné, 1766
has been tacitly considered as the
type
species, which is logical since it is based on the species described by
Gronovius (1763)
, but formally, this does not constitute a type-species fixation. There is possibly no mention of
Gonorynchus
Scopoli
until
Jordan
& Evermann (1917: 42)
listed it as a replacement name for ‘
Gonorynchus
Gronovius’, should this last one not be accepted as available. As understood by
Jordan
& Evermann, ‘
Gonorynchus
Gronovius’ included a single species, “
Cyprinus gonorhynchus
Gmelin, [1789
: 1422]”, which in fact is an incorrect subsequent spelling of
C. gonorynchus
Linné, 1766
: 528
, also based on
Gronovius (1763)
; this fixed
C. gonorhynchus
Linné
as
type
species of
Gonorynchus
Scopoli. However
, all references to
Gonorynchus
,
Gonorhynchus
,
Gonorinchus
etc. between
1777 and 1919
of which I am aware do not refer to
Gonorynchus
Scopoli
but to
Gonorhynchus
Cuvier, 1816
(see below).
Gonorynchus
Scopoli
has apparently not been used as valid name until
Fowler (1941: 728)
.
The name
Gonorynchus
[under its various spellings] became widely used for marine fishes (beaked sandfishes;
Grande 1999
) and is the name on which the family-group names Gonor[h]ynchidae and Gonor[h]ynchiformes are based. These names, and the associated fishes, are well known in ichthyological literature and the family and order are presently of undisputed validity. It is important to avoid confusion with a similarly spelled hill-stream cyprinid genus.