Amur sculpin

{{Short description|Species of fish}}

{{Speciesbox

| image = Amur sculpins.jpg

| parent_authority = Gratzianov, 1907

| taxon = Mesocottus haitej

| display_parents = 3

| authority = (Dybowski, 1869)

| synonyms = *Cottus haitej (Dybowski, 1869)

}}

The Amur sculpin (Mesocottus haitej), also known as the Ussuri sculpin, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Cottidae, the typical sculpins. This species is found in eastern Asia where it is found in Russia, China and Mongolia - in the Amur River basin and some adjacent territories (the Tugur and the Uda Rivers flowing into the Sea of Okhotsk north from the Amur River, north-west of Sakhalin Island opposite the mouth of the Amur River). The Amur sculpin grows to a maximum published total length of {{cvt|20|cm}}.{{FishBase species |genus= Mesocottus|species= haitej| month = December | year = 2012}} This species is the only known member of its genus, Mesocottus. According to the result of a pilot phylogenetic analysis, the freshwater Mesocottus is a sister lineage to the Cottus clade.{{cite journal|last=Shedko|first=SV|author2=Miroshnichenko, IL |author3=Nemkova, GA |title=Complete mitochondrial genome of the poorly known Amur sculpin Mesocottus haitej (Cottoidei: Cottidae).|journal=Mitochondrial DNA|date=Jul 31, 2013|pmid=23901915|doi=10.3109/19401736.2013.819496|volume=26|pages=147–148}}