Oh my goodness! Unless you are a Tree of Life developer, you really shouldn't be here. This page is part of our beta test site, where we develop new features for the ToL, often messing up a thing or two in the process. Please visit the official version of this page, which is available here.
Under Construction

Corydoras

Roberto E. Reis
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

At present, Corydoras represents the largest catfish genus, with 130 valid species and new species being described every year. These species will be listed here at a later time.

Type-species: Corydoras geoffroy Lacépède, 1803 (=C. punctatus Bloch, 1794).

See the Complete Catalogue for a list of species, authorships, synonyms, type-localities, and references.

Containing group: Callichthyidae

Introduction

A key to the species of Corydoras is not available at this moment, but some books like Burgess (1987) or Burgess (1989) present good pictures of most species which, associated with locality data, allow a reliable identification in most instances. Also, for a few regions in South America, there exist some taxonomic reviews, like Nijssen (1970) for Surinam, Nijssen & Isbrücker (1983) for Colombia and Nijssen & Isbrücker (1986) for Peru and Ecuador. Several species, however, have been described since the publication of the above reviews. Consult the Complete Catalogue and the List of Original Literature for an updated list of species and publications containing descriptions of new species.

Diagnosis

There are some synapomorphies diagnosing the tribe Corydoradini, which includes Corydoras and Brochis, but no one single derived feature was found to be shared by the species of Corydoras. The fact that no synapomorphies were found to diagnose Corydoras, as traditionally defined (Gosline, 1940), suggests that this genus is paraphyletic. The paraphyletic nature of Corydoras, however, is a consequence of recognizing Brochis as a separate genus. Additional phylogenetic studies of this clade are necessary before a reearrangement of Corydoras can be made.

Distribution

The species of Corydoras usually have more restricted areas of endemism than other callichthyids, but the area of distribution of the entire genus almost equals the area of distribution of the family, except for Panama where Corydoras is not present.

Title Illustrations
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Scientific Name Corydoras garbei
Location Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0.
Copyright © 1996 Roberto E. Reis
About This Page

Roberto E. Reis
Museu de Ciências e Tecnologia da PUCRS, Porto Alegre, Brazil

Page: Tree of Life Corydoras. Authored by Roberto E. Reis. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Reis, Roberto E. 1996. Corydoras. Version 29 April 1996 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Corydoras/15344/1996.04.29 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

edit this page
close box

This page is a Tree of Life Branch Page.

Each ToL branch page provides a synopsis of the characteristics of a group of organisms representing a branch of the Tree of Life. The major distinction between a branch and a leaf of the Tree of Life is that each branch can be further subdivided into descendent branches, that is, subgroups representing distinct genetic lineages.

For a more detailed explanation of the different ToL page types, have a look at the Structure of the Tree of Life page.

close box

Corydoras

Page Content

articles & notes

collections

people

Explore Other Groups

random page

  go to the Tree of Life home page
top