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Chalceidae, the tucanfishes,[1][2] is a family of freshwater fish first described by Henry Weed Fowler in the year 1958. It is a monotypic family, home only to the genus incertae sedis Chalceus.

Chalceidae
Chalceus macrolepidotus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Characiformes
Family:	Chalceidae Fowler, 1958

All members of the family inhabit areas of northern South America, including the Amazon River and various tributaries.[3]

Classification

Chalceidae is in the order Characiformes. The genus Chalceus used to be placed in the family Characidae, and is still listed there by several sources (like GBIF and ITIS).[4] Research since its original placement suggested movement into the family Chalceidae, based upon phylogenetic significance as a monophyletic group.[5] Morphological features further support this move.[6] This was also done in order to keep the family Characidae monophyletic.[5]

Currently, only Chalceus is classified in Chalceidae. Because Chalceus is a genus with five extant species, Chalceidae has five extant species by extension.[7][8] In alphabetical order, they are:

• Chalceus epakros Zanata & Toledo-Piza, 2004
• Chalceus erythrurus Cope, 1870 (tucan fish)
• Chalceus guaporensis Zanata & Toledo-Piza, 2004
• Chalceus macrolepidotus Cuvier, 1818 (pinktail chalceus)
• Chalceus spilogyros Zanata & Toledo-Piza, 2004

History

Chalceidae was first described in 1958 by Henry Weed Fowler as Chalceidi.[9] It has also been described as Plethodectidi by the same;[10] this is because Plethodectes erythrurus (Cope, 1870) used to be the sole representative, a name now synonymized with Chalceus erythrurus.[11][12] Therefore, the family Plethodectidi became defunct alongside the genus Plethodectes (in the context of describing species of Chalceus).

Etymology

"Tucanfish" directly translates to "toucan fish", because "tucán" means toucan in Spanish.[13] The species C. erythrurus shares a name with the family it belongs to - it is also commonly called the tucan fish.[14]

The sole genus of Chalceidae, Chalceus, gives the family its name and therefore its etymological root. Said root is the Greek word chalkos, which means copper;[15][16] this is in reference to the original description of C. macrolepidotus, wherein Georges Cuvier reported that its scales were "sometimes golden" when preserved in alcohol.[2][17]

References

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