Gasterosteus

Gasterosteus is a genus of ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Gasterosteidae, the sticklebacks. These fishes are found in freshwater, brackish water and marine habitats in the Holarctic region.

Gasterosteus Temporal range: Middle Miocene–present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Gasterosteus microcephalus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Gasterosteidae
Genus:	Gasterosteus Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Gasterosteus aculeatus Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms
Obolarius Tilesius, 1811 Gasteracanthus Pallas, 1814 Leiurus Swainson, 1839 Gladiunculus Jordan & Evermann, 1927

Species

There are currently 6 recognized species in this genus:

• Gasterosteus aculeatus Linnaeus, 1758 (Three-spined stickleback)
• †Gasterosteus crenobiontus Băcescu & R. Mayer, 1956 (Techirghiol stickleback)
• Gasterosteus islandicus Sauvage, 1874 (Iceland stickleback)
• Gasterosteus microcephalus Girard, 1854 (Smallhead stickleback)
• Gasterosteus nipponicus Higuchi, Sakai & A. Goto, 2014 ^[1]
• Gasterosteus wheatlandi Putnam, 1867 (Black-spotted stickleback)

Additionally there are a number of fossil species including:

• †Gasterosteus abnormis Gretchina, 1981 (middle Miocene of Sakhalin, Russia)^[2]
• †Gasterosteus doryssus (Jordan, 1907) (=Merriamella doryssa Jordan, 1907, G. apodus Mural, 1973) (late Miocene of Nevada, USA)^[3][4]
• †Gasterosteus kamoensis Nazarkin, Yabumoto & Urabe, 2013 (Late Miocene of Japan)^[2]
• †Gasterosteus orientalis Sychevskaya, 1981 (middle Miocene of Kamchatka, Russia)^[2]

Gasterosteus doryssus, a fossil freshwater species from Nevada

Fossils of essentially modern three-spined sticklebacks, assigned to G. aculeatus, are known from the mid-late Miocene of California, USA.^[5]