Login
Login

salvelinus

{{Short description|Genus of fishes}}

{{Redirect|Charr}}

{{automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = Late Miocene - presentSepkoski, Jack (2002): Osteichthyes. In: A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. Bulletins of American Paleontology 364: 560. [http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class HTML fulltext]

| image = Salvelinus alpinus alpinus.JPG

| image_caption = Arctic char, Salvelinus alpinus alpinus

| taxon = Salvelinus

| authority = J. Richardson, 1836

| type_species = Salvelinus alpinusWorld Register of Marine Species taxon details, Salvelinus alpinus. [https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=127188]

| type_species_authority = (Linnaeus, 1758)

| subdivision_ranks = Subgenera

| subdivision = * Baione DeKay, 1842

  • Cristovomer Walbaum, 1792
  • Salvelinus J. Richardson, 1836

}}

Salvelinus is a genus of salmonid fish often called char{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Char|volume=5|page=855}} or charr; some species are called "trout". Salvelinus is a member of the subfamily Salmoninae within the family Salmonidae. The genus has a northern circumpolar distribution, and most of its members are typically cold-water fish that primarily inhabit fresh waters. Many species also migrate to the sea.

Most char may be identified by light-cream, pink, or red spots over a darker body. Scales tend to be small, with 115–200 along the lateral line. The pectoral, pelvic, anal, and the lower aspect of caudal fins are trimmed in snow white or cream leading edges.

Many members of this genus are popular sport fish, and a few, such as lake trout (S. namaycush) and arctic char (S. alpinus) are objects of commercial fisheries and/or aquaculture. Occasionally such fish escape and become invasive species.

Deepwater char are small species of char living below 80 m in the deep areas of certain lakes. They are highly sensitive to changes in the quality of the water and one species, Salvelinus neocomensis, was driven to extinction in the twentieth century.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bfn.de/0322_rote-liste-wirbeltiere+M52087573ab0.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130623053516/http://www.bfn.de/0322_rote-liste-wirbeltiere+M52087573ab0.html|url-status=dead|title=Red List - Volume 1: Vertebrates (2009) - General assessment for the vertebrate groups|archivedate=June 23, 2013}}

Etymology

The origin of the name "char" or "charr" is unknown, but was perhaps from Celtic, such as the Irish word {{lang|ga|ceara}} meaning "fiery red" (found in some Celtic personal names), likely for the bright red belly of the Arctic char; or perhaps borrowed from Middle Low German schar meaning "flounder, dab"; or from Proto-Germanic *skardaz or *skeraną meaning "to cut or shear", possibly referring to its sherd-like shape.Wright, L. (1996). Sources of London English: Medieval Thames Vocabulary. United Kingdom: Clarendon Press, p. 107

Taxonomy

There are currently three subgenera in the genus Salvelinus: Baione, Cristovomer, and Salvelinus sensu stricto. Baione, the most basal clade in the genus, contains the brook trout (S. fontinalis), and the presumably extinct silver trout (S. agassizii). Cristovomer contains only the lake trout (S. namaycush). All other species are in the subgenus Salvelinus. If the long-finned char (Salvethymus svetovidovi) is considered a member of the genus Salvelinus, it would be classified in the subgenus Salvethymus, adding a fourth subgenus.{{Citation|last1=Phillips|first1=RUTH B.|title=CHAPTER 10 - Phylogenetic Relationships among the Salmoninae Based on Nuclear and Mitochondrial DNA Sequences|date=1997-01-01|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780124175402500117|work=Molecular Systematics of Fishes|pages=145–162|editor-last=Kocher|editor-first=Thomas D.|place=San Diego|publisher=Academic Press|language=en|isbn=978-0-12-417540-2|access-date=2020-08-05|last2=Oakley|first2=TODD H.|editor2-last=Stepien|editor2-first=Carol A.}}{{Cite journal|last1=Śliwińska-Jewsiewicka|first1=A.|last2=Kuciński|first2=M.|last3=Kirtiklis|first3=L.|last4=Dobosz|first4=S.|last5=Ocalewicz|first5=K.|last6=Jankun|first6=Malgorzata|date=2015|title=Chromosomal characteristics and distribution of rDNA sequences in the brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis (Mitchill, 1814)|journal=Genetica|volume=143|issue=4|pages=425–432|doi=10.1007/s10709-015-9841-6|issn=0016-6707|pmc=4486110|pmid=25958180}}

Species diversity

File:Char video ENG lang video by Natural Resources Wales.webm, Wales in 2020.]]

As with other salmonid genera, the delimitation of species in Salvelinus is controversial. FishBase in 2015 listed 54 species or subspecies in this genus, many of which have very narrow local distributions. Fourteen localised species are listed from the British Isles alone, although these traditionally, and still by the national conservation and fisheries authorities, are all considered to represent the widespread Arctic charr (S. alpinus). Twenty species are listed from the Asian part of Russia, including several localised taxa from in each of the Kamchatka, Chukotka and Taimyr peninsulas. One of these is the long-finned char, which phylogenetically is part of the Salvelinus group but has been so far classified into its own monotypic genus Salvethymus.{{cite journal | url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bij.12559/abstract | doi=10.1111/bij.12559 | title=Speciation and genetic divergence of three species of charr from ancient Lake El'gygytgyn (Chukotka) and their phylogenetic relationships with other representatives of the genus Salvelinus | date=2015 | last1=Osinov | first1=Alexander G. | last2=Senchukova | first2=Anna L. | last3=Mugue | first3=Nikolai S. | last4=Pavlov | first4=Sergei D. | last5=Chereshnev | first5=Igor A. | journal=Biological Journal of the Linnean Society | volume=116 | pages=63–85 }}

The Arctic char (S. alpinus) is the most broadly distributed Salvelinus species. It has a circumpolar distribution, and it is considered the most northern of all freshwater fishes. In North America, five relatively well defined species are present, which, apart from the Arctic char, comprise the brook trout (S. fontinalis), bull trout (S. confluentus), Dolly Varden trout (S. malma) and lake trout (S. namaycush).

This listing presents the taxa recognised in FishBase grouped by geography:

=Circumpolar=

=Europe=

;Central Europe

File:Salvelinus killinensis.jpg, Scotland]]

;British Isles

Scotland and adjacent islands:

File:Salvelinus alpinus.jpg, Salvelinus colii and Salvelinus grayi, Irish taxa]]

England and Wales:

Ireland:

;Northern Europe

Iceland and Atlantic islands:

Fennoscandia and Northwest Russia:

=Asia=

;Arctic drainages

File:Japansk röding.jpg]]

;Pacific drainages

File:Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis 2900px.jpg, Salvelinus fontinalis]]

File:Dolly Varden trout.jpg, Salvelinus malma]]

=North America=

Image:Lake trout fish in hands salvelinus namaycush.jpg, Salvelinus namaycush]]Atlantic drainages

Pacific & Arctic drainages

=Hybrids=

  • S. alpinus × S. fontinalis – Alsatian char
  • S. namaycush × S. fontinalis – splake, brookinaw
  • S. fontinalis × Salmo trutta – tiger trout
  • S. leucomaensis x O. masou – river mackerel, Kawasaba

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • {{Commons category-inline}}
  • [https://nas.er.usgs.gov/taxgroup/fish/default.asp USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Fish Database]
  • [http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/135426/0 IUCN Salvelinus umbla]

{{Authority control}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q548682}}

Category:Extant Miocene first appearances

Category:Taxa named by John Richardson (naturalist)

Category:Ray-finned fish genera