Family SAMARIDAE

Samaridae

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Introduction

Three genera and 20 species are recorded worldwide in the family Samaridae (Nelson 1994), with all genera and six species from Australia.

Samarids occur over soft bottoms on the continental shelf and slope to 300 m in Australia. Some species of Samariscus occur around coral reefs in shallow water. Maximum size reached is 25 cm.

Previously, samarids were placed in the Pleuronectidae, but now form the family Samaridae, which is recognised as the primitive sister group to Soleidae (soles) and Cynoglossidae (tongue soles) (Chapleau & Keast 1988; Chapleau 1993).

No thorough revisions have been undertaken on Australian species. However, Quéro et al. (1989) treated some species from the western Indian Ocean and Ochiai & Amaoka (1962) revised Samariscus species from Japan.

General References

Chapleau, F. 1993. Pleuronectiform relationships: a cladistic reassessment. Bulletin of Marine Science 52(1): 516-540 figs 1-7

Chapleau, F. & Keast, A. 1988. A phylogenetic reassessment of the monophyletic status of the Family Soleidae, with comments on the suborder Soleoidei (Pisces: Pleuronectiformes). Canadian Journal of Zoology 66: 2797-2810 figs 1-19

Hoese, D.F. & Bray, D.J. 2006. Samaridae. pp. 1838-1840 in Hoese, D.F., Bray, D.J., Paxton, J.R. & Allen, G.R. Fishes. In, Beesley, P.L. & Wells, A. (eds) Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Vol. 35. Volume 35 Australia : ABRS & CSIRO Publishing Parts 1-3, 2178 pp. [1838]

Nelson, J.S. 1994. Fishes of the World. New York : John Wiley & Sons 600 pp.

Ochiai, A. & Amaoka, K. 1962. Review of the Japanese flatfishes of the genus Samariscus, with the description of a new species from Tonking Bay. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 5(50): 83-91

Quéro, J.-C., Hensley, D.S. & Maugé, A.L. 1989. Pleuronectidae de l'île de la Réunion et de Madagascar. II. Genres Samaris et Samariscus. Cybium 13(2): 105-114

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