Schindleria
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| Schindleria | ||||||||||||
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Schindleria Giltay, 1934, is a genus of marine fish. It is the only genus of family Shindleriidae, among the Gobioidei of order Perciformes. The type species is S. praematura, the Schindler's fish. The Schindleria species are known generically as Schindler's fishes or infantfishes. They are native to the southern Pacific Ocean, from the South China Sea to the Great Barrier Reef off eastern Australia.
The infantfishes are so called because they retain many of their larval characteristics. Their elongate bodies are transparent, and many of the bones never develop. S. praematura reaches a length of 2.5 cm (1.0 in).
All of the Schindleria species are reef fishes. They may be among the most common fish of the reefs, based on the results of plankton tows, but because of their transparency and small size, they are infrequently seen in life.
A recently-described species, the S. brevipinguis (called the stout infantfish) is the world's smallest known vertebrate at 8 mm (about one-third inch), smaller even than the dwarf gobies.
There are apparently several (at least eight) further Schindleria species, native to the Ryukyu Islands, which have yet to be described formally.
References
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- Watson, William, and H. J. Walker, Jr. "The World's Smallest Vertebrate, Schindleria brevipinguis, a New Paedomorphic Species in the Family Schindleriidae (Perciformes: Gobioidei)". Records of the Australian Museum 56: 139-142. On-line version (PDF format) (http://www.amonline.net.au/pdf/publications/1429_complete.pdf).