Event Abstract Back to Event Taxonomy of the Clingfishes (Gobiesocidae): a 260 year journey through the marine intertidal zone and beyond. Kevin W. Conway1* 1 Texas A&M University, United States Members of the family Gobiesocidae (clingfishes) are generally benthic, and predominantly marine fishes that inhabit shallow (<60 meters depth) coastal areas in temperate and tropical regions. A handful of species also inhabit freshwater streams in the Neotropics. Gobiesocids come in an array of different body shapes, ranging from dorso-ventrally compressed to anguilliform, and body sizes, ranging from only ~10mm SL up to ~300mm SL. Commonly referred to as clingfishes, gobiesocids possess an adhesive disc on their ventral surface (formed from the elements of the paired-fins and their girdles) with which they attach with tenacity to irregular and heavily fouled substrates. The anatomy of this disc can differ markedly between even closely related species, the members of different genera and/or subfamilies, and though still relatively poorly explored, is paramount to gobiesocid taxonomy and classification. As of June 2019, the Gobiesocidae contains 178 valid species divided between 50 genera and (depending on the researcher) either 2 or 10 different subfamilies. Though some members of the Gobiesocidae were already described by Linnaeus in 1758, over 50% have been discovered and described only in the last 60 years. Since 2010 (less than 10 years ago), 20 new species and 4 new genera have been described, and 1 new subfamily recognized, based almost exclusively on morphological characters. Several of these recently described taxa exhibit novel characters hitherto unknown for the group, including putative venom glands, bewildering heterodontic dentitions, and purportedly even asymmetrical bauplans. I provide an overview of the taxonomic history of gobiesocid fishes from Linnaeus to the present, highlight the recent and unexpected discoveries in this group, and end with a plea for more detailed anatomical studies on these and other groups of fishes (even those that are considered to be relatively well-studied). Keywords: Teleostei, Gobiesocidae, Taxonomy, Classification, Anatomy Conference: XVI European Congress of Ichthyology, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2 Sep - 6 Sep, 2019. Presentation Type: Plenary Invited Presentation Topic: TAXONOMY, PHYLOGENY AND ZOOGEOGRAPHY Citation: Conway KW (2019). Taxonomy of the Clingfishes (Gobiesocidae): a 260 year journey through the marine intertidal zone and beyond.. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XVI European Congress of Ichthyology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2019.07.00152 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 18 Jun 2019; Published Online: 14 Aug 2019. * Correspondence: Dr. Kevin W Conway, Texas A&M University, College Station, United States, conwaykw@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Kevin W Conway Google Kevin W Conway Google Scholar Kevin W Conway PubMed Kevin W Conway Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.