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114-484: Extant families: Extinct family: Catfish (or catfishes ; order Siluriformes / s ɪ ˈ lj ʊər ɪ f ɔːr m iː z / or Nematognathi ) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish . Named for their prominent barbels , which resemble a cat 's whiskers , catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia , the wels catfish of Eurasia , and

228-738: A hydrofoil . Some have a mouth that can expand to a large size and contains no incisiform teeth; catfish generally feed through suction or gulping rather than biting and cutting prey. Some families, though, notably the Loricariidae and Astroblepidae , have a suckermouth that allows them to fasten themselves to objects in fast-moving water. Catfish also have a maxilla reduced to a support for barbels ; this means that they are unable to protrude their mouths as other fish such as carp . Catfish may have up to four pairs of barbels - nasal, maxillary (on each side of mouth), and two pairs of chin barbels, though pairs of barbels may be absent depending on

342-583: A monophyletic group. Catfish belong to a superorder called the Ostariophysi , which also includes the Cypriniformes (carps and minnows), Characiformes (characins and tetras), Gonorynchiformes (milkfish and beaked salmons) and Gymnotiformes (South American knifefish), a superorder characterized by the Weberian apparatus . Some place Gymnotiformes as a sub-order of Siluriformes; however, this

456-463: A bullhead catfish by the nickname "chucklehead", while in another state or region, that nickname refers to the blue catfish. Representatives of the genus Ictalurus have been introduced into European waters in the hope of obtaining a sporting and food resource, but the European stock of American catfishes has not achieved the dimensions of these fish in their native waters and have only increased

570-472: A catfish weighing 88 kilograms (194 lb) was caught in the River Ebro , Spain, by an 11-year-old British schoolgirl. Order (biology) What does and does not belong to each order is determined by a taxonomist , as is whether a particular order should be recognized at all. Often there is no exact agreement, with different taxonomists each taking a different position. There are no hard rules that

684-642: A complex series of orogenic events assembled the eastern parts of Gondwana (eastern Africa, Arabian-Nubian Shield, Seychelles, Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, East Antarctica, and Australia) c. 750 to 530 Ma . First, the Arabian-Nubian Shield collided with eastern Africa (in the Kenya-Tanzania region) in the East African Orogeny c. 750 to 620 Ma . Then Australia and East Antarctica were merged with

798-599: A continuous arc chain, the direction of subduction was different between the Australian-Tasmanian and New Zealand-Antarctica arc segments. Many terranes were accreted to Eurasia during Gondwana's existence, but the Cambrian or Precambrian origin of many of these terranes remains uncertain. For example, some Palaeozoic terranes and microcontinents that now make up Central Asia, often called the "Kazakh" and "Mongolian terranes", were progressively amalgamated into

912-481: A defense, these spines may be locked into place so that they stick outwards, enabling them to inflict severe wounds. In numerous catfish species, these fin rays can be used to deliver a stinging protein if the fish is irritated; as many as half of all catfish species may be venomous in this fashion, making the Siluriformes overwhelmingly the vertebrate order with the largest number of venomous species. This venom

1026-746: A diversified assemblage of true insects. In Gondwana, in contrast, ice and, in Australia, volcanism decimated the Devonian flora to a low-diversity seed fern flora – the pteridophytes were increasingly replaced by the gymnosperms which were to dominate until the Mid-Cretaceous. Australia, however, was still located near the Equator during the Early Carboniferous, and during this period, temnospondyl and lepospondyl amphibians and

1140-472: A few million years, reached its peak at c. 200 Ma , and coincided with the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event . The reformed Gondwanan continent was not precisely the same as that which had existed before Pangaea formed; for example, most of Florida and southern Georgia and Alabama is underlain by rocks that were originally part of Gondwana, but this region stayed attached to North America when

1254-594: A gradual decline during the Triassic while ferns, though never dominant, managed to diversify. The brief period of icehouse conditions during the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event had a dramatic impact on dinosaurs but left plants largely unaffected. The Jurassic was mostly one of hot-house conditions and, while vertebrates managed to diversify in this environment, plants have left little evidence of such development, apart from Cheiroleidiacean conifers and Caytoniales and other groups of seed ferns. In terms of biomass,

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1368-440: A junior synonym of Obaichthys . The authors of the original study still stood by their original conclusion based on the absence of important holostean characters, and noted that it could not be a juvenile, since the bones were completely ossified. The taxonomy of catfish is quickly changing. In a 2007 and 2008 paper, Horabagrus , Phreatobius , and Conorhynchos were not classified under any current catfish families. There

1482-518: A north-east motion about 90 million years ago. While subduction direction changed, it remained oblique (and not perpendicular) to the coast of South America, and the direction change affected several subduction zone -parallel faults including Atacama , Domeyko and Liquiñe-Ofqui . Insular India began to collide with Asia circa 70 Ma , forming the Indian subcontinent , since which more than 1,400 km (870 mi) of crust has been absorbed by

1596-639: A number of species related to those of the laurissilva of Valdivia, through the connection of the Antarctic flora . These include gymnosperms and the deciduous species of Nothofagus , as well as the New Zealand laurel, Corynocarpus laevigatus , and Laurelia novae-zelandiae . New Caledonia and New Zealand became separated from Australia by continental drift 85 million years ago. The islands still retain plants that originated in Gondwana and spread to

1710-544: A pattern that reflects the Jurassic break-up of Pangaea. The Cretaceous saw the arrival of the angiosperms , or flowering plants, a group that probably evolved in western Gondwana (South America–Africa). From there the angiosperms diversified in two stages: the monocots and magnoliids evolved in the Early Cretaceous, followed by the hammamelid dicots . By the Mid-Cretaceous, angiosperms constituted half of

1824-521: A peak in biodiversity – the end-Permian extinction was enormous and so was the radiation that followed. Two families of conifers, Podocarpaceae and Araucariaceae , dominated Gondwana in the Early Triassic, but Dicroidium , an extinct genus of fork-leaved seed ferns, dominated woodlands and forests of Gondwana during most of the Triassic. Conifers evolved and radiated during the period, with six of eight extant families already present before

1938-841: A rate three times faster than that of the past century. In June 2005, researchers named the newest family of catfish, Lacantuniidae , only the third new family of fish distinguished in the last seventy years, the others being the coelacanth in 1938 and the megamouth shark in 1983. The new species in Lacantuniidae , Lacantunia enigmatica , was found in the Lacantun river in the Mexican state of Chiapas . The higher-level phylogeny of Siluriformes has gone through several recent changes, mainly due to molecular phylogenetic studies. While most studies, both morphological and molecular, agree that catfishes are arranged into three main lineages ,

2052-541: A result of long branch attraction , incorrectly placing Loricarioidei as the earliest-branching catfish lineage. When a data filtering method was used to reduce lineage rate heterogeneity (the potential source of bias) on their dataset, a final phylogeny was recovered which showed the Diplomystidae are the earliest-branching catfish, followed by Loricarioidei and Siluroidei as sister lineages, providing both morphological and molecular support for Diplomystidae being

2166-669: A result of data sets compiled on behalf of oil and mining companies: the East African Orogeny ( 650 to 800 Ma ) and Kuunga orogeny (including the Malagasy Orogeny in southern Madagascar) ( 550 Ma ), the collision between East Gondwana and East Africa in two steps, and the Brasiliano orogeny ( 660 to 530 Ma ), the successive collision between South American and African cratons . The last stages of Gondwanan assembly overlapped with

2280-853: A series of events severally restricted the Proto-ACC: change to shallow marine conditions along the North Scotia Ridge; closure of the Fuegan Seaway, the deep sea that existed in Tierra del Fuego; and uplift of the Patagonian Cordillera. This, together with the reactivated Iceland plume , contributed to global warming. During the Miocene, the Drake Passage began to widen, and as water flow between South America and

2394-694: A single jaw from Australia. The closure of the Rheic Ocean and the formation of Pangaea in the Carboniferous resulted in the rerouting of ocean currents that initiated an Ice House period. As Gondwana began to rotate clockwise, Australia shifted south to more temperate latitudes. An ice cap initially covered most of southern Africa and South America but spread to eventually cover most of the supercontinent, save for northernmost Africa-South America and eastern Australia. Giant lycopod and horsetail forests continued to evolve in tropical Laurasia together with

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2508-427: A taxonomist needs to follow in describing or recognizing an order. Some taxa are accepted almost universally, while others are recognized only rarely. The name of an order is usually written with a capital letter. For some groups of organisms, their orders may follow consistent naming schemes . Orders of plants , fungi , and algae use the suffix -ales (e.g. Dictyotales ). Orders of birds and fishes use

2622-569: Is Phreatobius cisternarum , known to live underground in phreatic habitats. Numerous species from the families Ariidae and Plotosidae , and a few species from among the Aspredinidae and Bagridae , are found in salt water. In the Southern United States, catfish species may be known by a variety of slang names, such as "mud cat", "polliwogs", or "chuckleheads". These nicknames are not standardized, so one area may call

2736-646: Is a catfish. Catfish are believed to have a Gondwanan origin primarily centered around South America, as the most basal living catfish groups are known from there. The earliest known definitive members lived in the Americas from the Campanian to Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous , including the Andinichthyidae , Vorhisia vulpes and possibly Arius . A potential fossil record

2850-563: Is also commonly called Gondwanaland . Regions that were part of Gondwana shared floral and zoological elements that persist to the present day. The continent of Gondwana was named by the Austrian scientist Eduard Suess , after the region in central India of the same name , which is derived from Sanskrit for "forest of the Gonds ". The name had been previously used in a geological context, first by H. B. Medlicott in 1872, from which

2964-616: Is disagreement on the family status of certain groups; for example, Nelson (2006) lists Auchenoglanididae and Heteropneustidae as separate families, while the All Catfish Species Inventory (ACSI) includes them under other families. FishBase and the Integrated Taxonomic Information System lists Parakysidae as a separate family, while this group is included under Akysidae by both Nelson (2006) and ACSI. Many sources do not list

3078-601: Is known from the earlier Coniacian - Santonian stages in Niger of West Africa , though this has been considered unreliable, and the putative earliest armored catfish known from the fossil record, Afrocascudo , lived during the Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous in Morocco of North Africa ( Kem Kem Group ). The describers of Afrocascudo claimed that the presence of a derived loricariid so early on would indicate

3192-493: Is not as widely accepted. Currently, the Siluriformes are said to be the sister group to the Gymnotiformes, though this has been debated due to more recent molecular evidence. As of 2007 there were about thirty-six extant catfish families, and about 3,093 extant species have been described. This makes the catfish order the second or third most diverse vertebrate order; in fact, one out of every twenty vertebrate species

3306-818: Is now the Transantarctic Mountains ): the Antarctic Peninsula , Marie Byrd Land , Zealandia , and Thurston Island ; the Falkland Islands and Ellsworth–Whitmore Mountains (in Antarctica) were rotated 90° in opposite directions; and South America south of the Gastre Fault (often referred to as Patagonia ) was pushed westward. The history of the Africa-Antarctica break-up can be studied in great detail in

3420-576: Is now the southern Weddell Sea where initial break-up occurred during the Jurassic c. 180 to 160 Ma . Gondwana began to break up in the early Jurassic following the extensive and fast emplacement of the Karoo-Ferrar flood basalts c. 184 Ma . Before the Karoo plume initiated rifting between Africa and Antarctica , it separated a series of smaller continental blocks from Gondwana's southern, Proto-Pacific margin (along what

3534-541: Is presumed to have been linked to the subduction of cold oceanic lithosphere . During the mid to Late Cretaceous ( c.  90 million years ago ), the Andean orogeny changed significantly in character. Warmer and younger oceanic lithosphere is believed to have started to be subducted beneath South America around this time. Such kind of subduction is held responsible not only for the intense contractional deformation that different lithologies were subject to, but also

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3648-478: Is produced by glandular cells in the epidermal tissue covering the spines. In members of the family Plotosidae and of the genus Heteropneustes , this protein is so strong it may hospitalize humans who receive a sting; in Plotosus lineatus , the stings can be lethal. The dorsal- and pectoral-fin spines are two of the most conspicuous features of siluriforms, and differ from those in other fish groups. Despite

3762-570: Is usually considered to be the earliest branching catfish lineage and the sister group to the other two lineages, Loricarioidei and Siluroidei. Molecular evidence usually contrasts with this hypothesis, and shows the suborder Loricarioidei as the earliest branching catfish lineage, and sister to a clade that includes the Diplomystidae and Siluroidei; this phylogeny has been obtained in numerous studies based on genetic data. However, it has been suggested that these molecular results are errors as

3876-659: The Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and the Genera Plantarum of Bentham & Hooker, it indicated taxa that are now given the rank of family (see ordo naturalis , ' natural order '). In French botanical publications, from Michel Adanson 's Familles naturelles des plantes (1763) and until the end of the 19th century, the word famille (plural: familles )

3990-787: The Antarctic Peninsula increased, the renewed ACC resulted in cooler global climate. Since the Eocene, the northward movement of the Australian Plate has resulted in an arc-continent collision with the Philippine and Caroline plates and the uplift of the New Guinea Highlands . From the Oligocene to the late Miocene, the climate in Australia, dominated by warm and humid rainforests before this collision, began to alternate between open forest and rainforest before

4104-886: The Antongil Block in far eastern Madagascar, the Seychelles , and the Napier and Rayner Complexes in East Antarctica ). The Azania continent (much of central Madagascar , the Horn of Africa and parts of Yemen and Arabia) was an island in the Mozambique Ocean. The continent Australia/ Mawson was still separated from India, eastern Africa, and Kalahari by c. 600 Ma , when most of western Gondwana had already been amalgamated. By c. 550 Ma, India had reached its Gondwanan position, which initiated

4218-1075: The Australian Plate are now separated by the Capricorn Plate and its diffuse boundaries. During the opening of the Indian Ocean, the Kerguelen hotspot first formed the Kerguelen Plateau on the Antarctic Plate c. 118 to 95 Ma and then the Ninety East Ridge on the Indian Plate at c. 100 Ma . The Kerguelen Plateau and the Broken Ridge , the southern end of the Ninety East Ridge, are now separated by

4332-844: The Campbell Plateau , Chatham Rise , Lord Howe Rise , Norfolk Ridge , and New Caledonia , from West Antarctica c. 84 Ma . The opening of the South Atlantic Ocean divided West Gondwana (South America and Africa), but there is considerable debate over the exact timing of this break-up. Rifting propagated from south to north along Triassic–Early Jurassic lineaments, but intra-continental rifts also began to develop within both continents in Jurassic–Cretaceous sedimentary basins, subdividing each continent into three sub-plates. Rifting began c. 190 Ma at Falkland latitudes, forcing Patagonia to move relative to

4446-602: The Central Atlantic opened . Antarctica, the centre of the supercontinent, shared boundaries with all other Gondwana continents and the fragmentation of Gondwana propagated clockwise around it. The break-up was the result of the eruption of the Karoo-Ferrar igneous province , one of the Earth's most extensive large igneous provinces (LIP) c. 200 to 170 Ma , but the oldest magnetic anomalies between South America, Africa, and Antarctica are found in what

4560-834: The Drake Passage and the deepening of the Tasman Gateway. The oldest oceanic crust in the Drake Passage, however, is 34 to 29 Ma -old which indicates that the spreading between the Antarctic and South American plates began near the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. Deep sea environments in Tierra del Fuego and the North Scotia Ridge during the Eocene and Oligocene indicate a "Proto-ACC" opened during this period. Later, 26 to 14 Ma ,

4674-435: The Great American Interchange . The break-up of Gondwana can be said to continue in eastern Africa at the Afar Triple Junction , which separates the Arabian , Nubian , and Somali plates, resulting in rifting in the Red Sea and East African Rift . In the Early Cenozoic , Australia was still connected to Antarctica c. 35–40° south of its current location and both continents were largely unglaciated. A rift between

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4788-401: The Himalayan - Tibetan orogen. During the Cenozoic, the orogen resulted in the construction of the Tibetan Plateau between the Tethyan Himalayas in the south and the Kunlun and Qilian mountains in the north. Later, South America was connected to North America via the Isthmus of Panama , cutting off a circulation of warm water and thereby making the Arctic colder, as well as allowing

4902-481: The Ordovician . This is the Cuyania or Precordillera terrane of the Famatinian orogeny in northwest Argentina which may have continued the line of the Appalachians southwards. Chilenia terrane accreted later against Cuyania. The collision of the Patagonian terrane with the southwestern Gondwanan occurred in the late Paleozoic. Subduction-related igneous rocks from beneath the North Patagonian Massif have been dated at 320–330 million years old, indicating that

5016-409: The Pan-African orogeny , caused the continental fragments of a much older supercontinent, Rodinia , to amalgamate. One of those orogenic belts, the Mozambique Belt , formed 800 to 650 Ma and was originally interpreted as the suture between East (India, Madagascar, Antarctica, and Australia) and West Gondwana (Africa and South America). Three orogenies were recognised during the 1990s as

5130-481: The Pangaea supercontinent during the Carboniferous. Pangaea began to break up in the Mid-Jurassic when the Central Atlantic opened . In the western end of Pangaea, the collision between Gondwana and Laurasia closed the Rheic and Palaeo-Tethys oceans. The obliquity of this closure resulted in the docking of some northern terranes in the Marathon , Ouachita , Alleghanian , and Variscan orogenies, respectively. Southern terranes, such as Chortis and Oaxaca , on

5244-499: The Southeast Indian Ridge . Separation between Australia and East Antarctica began c. 132 Ma with seafloor spreading occurring c. 96 Ma . A shallow seaway developed over the South Tasman Rise during the Early Cenozoic and as oceanic crust started to separate the continents during the Eocene c. 35.5 Ma global ocean temperature dropped significantly. A dramatic shift from arc- to rift magmatism c. 100 Ma separated Zealandia , including New Zealand ,

5358-442: The Uralian orogeny and Laurasia . Pangaea was finally amalgamated in the Late Carboniferous-Early Permian, but the oblique forces continued until Pangaea began to rift in the Triassic. In the eastern end, collisions occurred slightly later. The North China , South China , and Indochina blocks rifted from Gondwana during the middle Paleozoic and opened the Proto-Tethys Ocean . North China docked with Mongolia and Siberia during

5472-422: The Variscan orogeny close to the Carboniferous–Permian boundary. South-east Asia was made of Gondwanan and Cathaysian continental fragments that were assembled during the Mid-Palaeozoic and Cenozoic. This process can be divided into three phases of rifting along Gondwana's northern margin: first, in the Devonian, North and South China , together with Tarim and Quidam (north-western China) rifted, opening

5586-479: The piraíba of South America , to detritivores (species that eat dead material on the bottom), and even to a tiny parasitic species commonly called the candiru , Vandellia cirrhosa . Neither the armour-plated types nor the naked types have scales. Despite their name, not all catfish have prominent barbels or "whiskers". Members of the Siluriformes order are defined by features of the skull and swimbladder . Catfish are of considerable commercial importance; many of

5700-403: The uplift and erosion known to have occurred from the Late Cretaceous onward. Plate tectonic reorganisation since the mid-Cretaceous might also have been linked to the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean . Another change related to mid-Cretaceous plate tectonic rearrangement was the change of subduction direction of the oceanic lithosphere that went from having south-east motion to having

5814-403: The Americas. They are the only ostariophysans that have entered freshwater habitats in Madagascar , Australia, and New Guinea . They are found in fresh water/ brackish water environments, though most inhabit shallow, running water. Representatives of at least eight families are hypogean (live underground) with three families that are also troglobitic (inhabiting caves). One such species

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5928-502: The Carboniferous–Permian, followed by South China. The Cimmerian blocks then rifted from Gondwana to form the Palaeo-Thethys and Neo-Tethys oceans in the Late Carboniferous, and docked with Asia during the Triassic and Jurassic. Western Pangaea began to rift while the eastern end was still being assembled. The formation of Pangaea and its mountains had a tremendous impact on global climate and sea levels, which resulted in glaciations and continent-wide sedimentation. In North America,

6042-405: The Early Cretaceous, and West Burma and Woyla during the Late Cretaceous. Gondwana's long, northern margin remained a mostly passive margin throughout the Palaeozoic. The Early Permian opening of the Neo-Tethys Ocean along this margin produced a long series of terranes, many of which were and still are being deformed in the Himalaya Orogeny . These terranes are, from Turkey to north-eastern India:

6156-412: The Earth's crust), beginning c.   800 to 650 Ma with the East African Orogeny , the collision of India and Madagascar with East Africa, and culminating in c.   600 to 530 Ma with the overlapping Brasiliano and Kuunga orogenies, the collision of South America with Africa, and the addition of Australia and Antarctica, respectively. Eventually, Gondwana became

6270-448: The Equator during this period and remained a lifeless and barren landscape. West Gondwana drifted north during the Devonian , bringing Gondwana and Laurasia close together. Global cooling contributed to the Late Devonian extinction (19% of marine families and 50% of genera went extinct) and glaciation occurred in South America. Before Pangaea had formed, terrestrial plants, such as pteridophytes , began to diversify rapidly resulting in

6384-400: The Equator on landmasses then limited to Laurasia and, in Gondwana, to Australia. In the late Silurian, two distinctive lineages, zosterophylls and rhyniophytes , had colonised the tropics. The former evolved into the lycopods that were to dominate the Gondwanan vegetation over a long period, whilst the latter evolved into horsetails and gymnosperms . Most of Gondwana was located far from

6498-443: The Gondwana sedimentary sequences ( Permian - Triassic ) are also described. Some scientists prefer the term "Gondwanaland" for the supercontinent to make a clear distinction between the region and the supercontinent. The assembly of Gondwana was a protracted process during the Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic , which remains incompletely understood because of the lack of paleo-magnetic data. Several orogenies , collectively known as

6612-446: The Jurassic flora was dominated by conifer families and other gymnosperms that had evolved during the Triassic. The Pteridophytes that had dominated during the Palaeozoic were now marginalised, except for ferns. In contrast to Laurentia, very few insect fossils have been found in Gondwana, to a considerable extent because of widespread deserts and volcanism. While plants had a cosmopolitan distribution, dinosaurs evolved and diversified in

6726-406: The Kuunga orogeny (also known as the Pinjarra orogeny). Meanwhile, on the other side of the newly forming Africa, Kalahari collided with Congo and Rio de la Plata which closed the Adamastor Ocean . c. 540–530 Ma, the closure of the Mozambique Ocean brought India next to Australia–East Antarctica, and both North and South China were in proximity to Australia. As the rest of Gondwana formed,

6840-422: The Late Permian, many known from South Africa and Australia. Beetles and cockroaches remained minor elements in this fauna. Tetrapod fossils from the Early Permian have only been found in Laurasia but they became common in Gondwana later during the Permian. The arrival of the therapsids resulted in the first plant-vertebrate-insect ecosystem. During the Mid- to Late Triassic, hot-house conditions coincided with

6954-576: The Latin suffix -iformes meaning 'having the form of' (e.g. Passeriformes ), but orders of mammals and invertebrates are not so consistent (e.g. Artiodactyla , Actiniaria , Primates ). For some clades covered by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature , several additional classifications are sometimes used, although not all of these are officially recognized. In their 1997 classification of mammals , McKenna and Bell used two extra levels between superorder and order: grandorder and mirorder . Michael Novacek (1986) inserted them at

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7068-405: The Miocene, a warm and humid climate developed with pockets of rainforests in central Australia, but before the end of the period, colder and drier climate severely reduced this rainforest. A brief period of increased rainfall in the Pliocene was followed by drier climate which favoured grassland. Since then, the fluctuation between wet interglacial periods and dry glacial periods has developed into

7182-443: The Neoproterozoic to Palaeozoic phase of the Terra Australis Orogen , a series of terranes were rafted from the proto-Andean margin when the Iapteus Ocean opened, to be added back to Gondwana during the closure of that ocean. During the Paleozoic, some blocks which helped to form parts of the Southern Cone of South America, include a piece transferred from Laurentia when the west edge of Gondwana scraped against southeast Laurentia in

7296-441: The Palaeo-Tethys behind them. These terranes accreted to Asia during Late Devonian and Permian. Second, in the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian, Cimmerian terranes opened Meso-Tethys Ocean; Sibumasu and Qiangtang were added to south-east Asia during Late Permian and Early Jurassic. Third, in the Late Triassic to Late Jurassic, Lhasa , West Burma , Woyla terranes opened the Neo-Tethys Ocean; Lhasa collided with Asia during

7410-456: The South Atlantic (Brazil and Cameroon ) dating to around 120  million years ago , suggesting that some form of land connection still existed between Africa and South America as recently as the early Aptian . The first phases of Andean orogeny in the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous were characterised by extensional tectonics , rifting , the development of back-arc basins and the emplacement of large batholiths . This development

7524-465: The Southern Hemisphere, has a "Gondwanan distribution" and is often described as an archaic, or relict , lineage. The distributions in the Proteaceae is, nevertheless, the result of both Gondwanan rafting and later oceanic dispersal. During the Silurian, Gondwana extended from the Equator (Australia) to the South Pole (North Africa and South America) whilst Laurasia was located on the Equator opposite to Australia. A short-lived Late Ordovician glaciation

7638-408: The Taurides in southern Turkey; the Lesser Caucasus Terrane in Georgia; the Sanand, Alborz, and Lut terranes in Iran; the Mangysglak or Kopetdag Terrane in the Caspian Sea; the Afghan Terrane; the Karakorum Terrane in northern Pakistan; and the Lhasa and Qiangtang terranes in Tibet. The Permian–Triassic widening of the Neo-Tethys pushed all these terranes across the Equator and over to Eurasia. During

7752-535: The ariid catfish, where the young retain yolk sacs late into juvenile stages, and many pimelodids, which may have elongated barbels and fin filaments or coloration patterns. Sexual dimorphism is reported in about half of all families of catfish. The modification of the anal fin into an intromittent organ (in internal fertilizers) as well as accessory structures of the reproductive apparatus (in both internal and external fertilizers) have been described in species belonging to 11 different families. Catfish have one of

7866-407: The armor is formed solely by expanded vertebral processes that form plates. Finally, the lateral armor of doradids , Sisor , and hoplomyzontines consists of hypertrophied lateral line ossicles with dorsal and ventral lamina . All catfish other than members of the Malapteruridae ( electric catfish ), possess a strong, hollow, bony, leading spine-like ray on their dorsal and pectoral fins . As

7980-550: The base of the Absaroka sequence coincides with the Alleghanian and Ouachita orogenies and are indicative of a large-scale change in the mode of deposition far away from the Pangaean orogenies. Ultimately, these changes contributed to the Permian–Triassic extinction event and left large deposits of hydrocarbons, coal, evaporite, and metals. The breakup of Pangaea began with the Central Atlantic magmatic province (CAMP) between South America, Africa, North America, and Europe. CAMP covered more than seven million square kilometres over

8094-414: The colonisation of Gondwana. The Baragwanathia Flora, found only in the Yea Beds of Victoria, Australia, occurs in two strata separated by 1,700 m (5,600 ft) or 30 Ma; the upper assemblage is more diverse and includes Baragwanathia, the first primitive herbaceous lycopod to evolve from the zosterophylls. During the Devonian, giant club mosses replaced the Baragwanathia Flora, introducing

8208-753: The continent Kazakhstania in the late Silurian . Whether these blocks originated on the shores of Gondwana is not known. In the Early Palaeozoic, the Armorican terrane , which today form large parts of France, was part of either Peri-Gondwana or core Gondwana; the Rheic Ocean closed in front of it and the Palaeo-Tethys Ocean opened behind it. Precambrian rocks from the Iberian Peninsula suggest that it, too, formed part of core Gondwana before its detachment as an orocline in

8322-424: The continent became the arid or semiarid landscape it is today. The adjective "Gondwanan" is in common use in biogeography when referring to patterns of distribution of living organisms, typically when the organisms are restricted to two or more of the now-discontinuous regions that were once part of Gondwana, including the Antarctic flora . For example, the plant family Proteaceae , known from all continents in

8436-833: The development of rifts systems on both continents, including the Central African Rift System and the Central African Shear Zone which lasted until c. 85 Ma . At Brazilian latitudes spreading is more difficult to assess because of the lack of palaeo-magnetic data, but rifting occurred in Nigeria at the Benue Trough c. 118 Ma . North of the Equator the rifting began after 120.4 Ma and continued until c. 100 to 96 Ma . Dinosaur footprints representing identical species assemblages are known from opposite sides of

8550-1527: The earliest branching catfish. Below is a list of family relationships by different authors. Lacantuniidae is included in the Sullivan scheme based on recent evidence that places it sister to Claroteidae . Phylogeny of living Siluriformes based on 2017 and extinct families based on Nelson, Grande & Wilson 2016. † Andinichthyidae Nematogenyidae [REDACTED] Trichomycteridae [REDACTED] Callichthyidae [REDACTED] Astroblepidae [REDACTED] Loricariidae [REDACTED] Diplomystidae † Bachmanniidae † Hypsidoridae Cetopsidae [REDACTED] Siluridae [REDACTED] Pangasiidae Mochokidae [REDACTED] Claroteidae Plotosidae Ictaluridae [REDACTED] Clariidae [REDACTED] Ailiidae Sisoridae [REDACTED] Bagridae [REDACTED] Aspredinidae Doradidae [REDACTED] Auchenipteridae [REDACTED] Heptapteridae [REDACTED] Pseudopimelodidae [REDACTED] Pimelodidae [REDACTED] Unassigned families: Extant catfish species live inland or in coastal waters of every continent except Antarctica . Catfish have inhabited all continents at one time or another. They are most diverse in tropical South America, Asia, and Africa, with one family native to North America and one family in Europe. More than half of all catfish species live in

8664-428: The ecological pressure on native European fauna . Walking catfish have also been introduced in the freshwater areas of Florida, with the voracious catfish becoming a major alien pest there. Flathead catfish , Pylodictis olivaris , is also a North American pest on Atlantic slope drainages. Pterygoplichthys species, released by aquarium fishkeepers, have also established feral populations in many warm waters around

8778-556: The end of it. Bennettitales and Pentoxylales , two now extinct orders of gymnospermous plants, evolved in the Late Triassic and became important in the Jurassic and Cretaceous. It is possible that gymnosperm biodiversity surpassed later angiosperm biodiversity and that the evolution of angiosperms began during the Triassic but, if so, in Laurasia rather than in Gondwana. Two Gondwanan classes, lycophytes and sphenophytes , saw

8892-472: The ending -anae that was initiated by Armen Takhtajan 's publications from 1966 onwards. The order as a distinct rank of biological classification having its own distinctive name (and not just called a higher genus ( genus summum )) was first introduced by the German botanist Augustus Quirinus Rivinus in his classification of plants that appeared in a series of treatises in the 1690s. Carl Linnaeus

9006-946: The eruption of the Deccan basalts , whose eruption site may survive as the Réunion hotspot . The Seychelles and the Maldives are now separated by the Central Indian Ridge . During the initial break-up in the Early Jurassic a marine transgression swept over the Horn of Africa covering Triassic planation surfaces with sandstone , limestone , shale , marls and evaporites . East Gondwana, comprising Antarctica, Madagascar, India, and Australia, began to separate from Africa. East Gondwana then began to break up c. 132.5 to 96 Ma when India moved northwest from Australia-Antarctica. The Indian Plate and

9120-563: The evolution of Voltziales , one of the few plant orders to survive the end-Permian extinction (57% of marine families and 83% of genera went extinct) and which came to dominate in the Late Permian and from whom true conifers evolved. Tall lycopods and horsetails dominated the wetlands of Gondwana in the Early Permian. Insects co-evolved with glossopterids across Gondwana and diversified with more than 200 species in 21 orders by

9234-504: The extensive diversification of catfish, or at least loricarioids, prior to the beginning of the Late Cretaceous. As extant loricariids are only known from South America, much of this diversification must have occurred on the supercontinent of West Gondwana prior to its fragmentation into South America and Africa. Britz and colleagues suggested that Afrocascudo instead represents a juvenile obaichthyid lepisosteiform , possibly

9348-910: The field of zoology , the Linnaean orders were used more consistently. That is, the orders in the zoology part of the Systema Naturae refer to natural groups. Some of his ordinal names are still in use, e.g. Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) and Diptera (flies, mosquitoes, midges, and gnats). In virology , the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses 's virus classification includes fifteen taxomomic ranks to be applied for viruses , viroids and satellite nucleic acids : realm , subrealm , kingdom , subkingdom, phylum , subphylum , class, subclass, order, suborder, family, subfamily , genus, subgenus , and species. There are currently fourteen viral orders, each ending in

9462-564: The first amniote reptilians evolved, all closely related to the Laurasian fauna, but spreading ice eventually drove these animals away from Gondwana entirely. The Gondwana ice sheet melted, and sea levels dropped during the Permian and Triassic global warming. During this period, the extinct glossopterids colonised Gondwana and reached peak diversity in the Late Permian when coal-forming forests covered much of Gondwana. The period also saw

9576-522: The first trees, and by the Late Devonian this first forest was accompanied by the progymnosperms , including the first large trees Archaeopteris . The Late Devonian extinction probably also resulted in osteolepiform fishes evolving into the amphibian tetrapods , the earliest land vertebrates, in Greenland and Russia. The only traces of this evolution in Gondwana are amphibian footprints and

9690-526: The flora in northeastern Australia. There is, however, no obvious connection between this spectacular angiosperm radiation and any known extinction event nor with vertebrate/insect evolution. Insect orders associated with pollination, such as beetles , flies , butterflies and moths , and wasps, bees, and ants , radiated continuously from the Permian-Triassic, long before the arrival of the angiosperms. Well-preserved insect fossils have been found in

9804-439: The former ranges throughout Europe, and the latter is restricted to Greece . Mythology and literature record wels catfish of astounding proportions yet are to be proven scientifically. The typical size of the species is about 1.2–1.6 m (3.9–5.2 ft), and fish more than 2 m (6.6 ft) are rare. However, they are known to exceed 2.5 m (8.2 ft) in length and 100 kg (220 lb) in weight. In July 2009,

9918-636: The fracture zones and magnetic anomalies flanking the Southwest Indian Ridge . The Madagascar block and the Mascarene Plateau , stretching from the Seychelles to Réunion , were broken off India, causing Madagascar and Insular India to be separate landmasses : elements of this break-up nearly coincide with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event . The India–Madagascar–Seychelles separations appear to coincide with

10032-456: The genus is possible. As far as known for most catfish, features that are often characteristic of species, such as mouth and fin positions, fin shapes, and barbel lengths, show little difference between juveniles and adults. For many species, pigmentation pattern is also similar in juveniles and adults. Thus, juvenile catfish generally resemble and develop smoothly into their adult form without distinct juvenile specializations. Exceptions to this are

10146-861: The lake deposits of the Santana Formation in Brazil, the Koonwarra Lake fauna in Australia, and the Orapa diamond mine in Botswana. Dinosaurs continued to prosper but, as the angiosperm diversified, conifers, bennettitaleans and pentoxylaleans disappeared from Gondwana c. 115 Ma together with the specialised herbivorous ornithischians , whilst generalist browsers, such as several families of sauropodomorph Saurischia , prevailed. The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event killed off all dinosaurs except birds, but plant evolution in Gondwana

10260-422: The larger species are farmed or fished for food. Many of the smaller species, particularly the genus Corydoras , are important in the aquarium hobby . Many catfish are nocturnal , but others (many Auchenipteridae ) are crepuscular or diurnal (most Loricariidae or Callichthyidae , for example). Molecular evidence suggests that in spite of the great morphological diversity in the order, all catfish form

10374-700: The largest piece of continental crust of the Palaeozoic Era, covering an area of some 100,000,000 km (39,000,000 sq mi), about one-fifth of the Earth's surface. It fused with Euramerica during the Carboniferous to form Pangea . It began to separate from northern Pangea ( Laurasia ) during the Triassic , and started to fragment during the Early Jurassic (around 180 million years ago). The final stages of break-up, involving

10488-401: The largest ranges in size within a single order of bony fish . Many catfish have a maximum length of under 12 cm (4.7 in). Some of the smallest species of the Aspredinidae and Trichomycteridae reach sexual maturity at only 1 cm (0.39 in). The wels catfish , Silurus glanis , and the much smaller related Aristotle's catfish , are the only catfish indigenous to Europe ;

10602-701: The opening of the Iapetus Ocean between Laurentia and western Gondwana. During this interval, the Cambrian explosion occurred. Laurentia was docked against the western shores of a united Gondwana for a brief period near the Precambrian/Cambrian boundary, forming the short-lived and still disputed supercontinent Pannotia . The Mozambique Ocean separated the Congo – Tanzania – Bangweulu Block of central Africa from Neoproterozoic India (India,

10716-574: The order. In loricarioids and in the Asian genus Sisor , the armor is primarily made up of one or more rows of free dermal plates. Similar plates are found in large specimens of Lithodoras . These plates may be supported by vertebral processes , as in scoloplacids and in Sisor , but the processes never fuse to the plates or form any external armor. By contrast, in the subfamily Doumeinae (family Amphiliidae ) and in hoplomyzontines ( Aspredinidae ),

10830-600: The other hand, remained largely unaffected by the collision along the southern shores of Laurentia. Some Peri-Gondwanan terranes, such as Yucatán and Florida , were buffered from collisions by major promontories. Other terranes, such as Carolina and Meguma , were directly involved in the collision. The final collision resulted in the Variscan- Appalachian Mountains , stretching from present-day Mexico to southern Europe. Meanwhile, Baltica collided with Siberia and Kazakhstania which resulted in

10944-464: The presence of a Weberian apparatus . Their well-developed Weberian apparatus and reduced gas bladder allow for improved hearing and sound production. Catfish do not have scales ; their bodies are often naked. In some species, their mucus -covered skin is used in cutaneous respiration , where the fish breathes through its skin. In some catfish, the skin is covered in bony plates called scutes ; some form of body armor appears in various ways within

11058-561: The present arid regime. Australia has thus experienced various climate changes over a 15-million-year period with a gradual decrease in precipitation. The Tasman Gateway between Australia and Antarctica began to open c. 40 to 30 Ma . Palaeontological evidence indicates the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) was established in the Late Oligocene c. 23 Ma with the full opening of

11172-427: The recently revised family Anchariidae . The family Horabagridae , including Horabagrus , Pseudeutropius , and Platytropius , is not shown by some authors but presented by others as a true group. Thus, the actual number of families differs between authors. The species count is in constant flux due to taxonomic work as well as description of new species. Between 2003 and 2005, over one hundred species were named,

11286-502: The relationship among these lineages has been a contentious point in which these studies, performed for example by Rui Diogo , differ. The three main lineages in Siluriformes are the family Diplomystidae , the denticulate catfish suborder Loricarioidei (containing the Neotropical "suckermouth" catfishes), and the suborder Siluroidei, which contains the remaining families of the order. According to morphological data, Diplomystidae

11400-760: The remaining Gondwana c. 570 to 530 Ma in the Kuunga Orogeny. The later Malagasy orogeny at about 550–515 Mya affected Madagascar, eastern East Africa and southern India. In it, Neoproterozoic India collided with the already combined Azania and Congo–Tanzania–Bangweulu Block, suturing along the Mozambique Belt. The 18,000 km-long (11,000 mi) Terra Australis Orogen developed along Gondwana's western, southern, and eastern margins. Proto-Gondwanan Cambrian arc belts from this margin have been found in eastern Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and Antarctica. Though these belts formed

11514-420: The same position. Michael Benton (2005) inserted them between superorder and magnorder instead. This position was adopted by Systema Naturae 2000 and others. In botany , the ranks of subclass and suborder are secondary ranks pre-defined as respectively above and below the rank of order. Any number of further ranks can be used as long as they are clearly defined. The superorder rank is commonly used, with

11628-538: The separation of Antarctica from South America (forming the Drake Passage ) and Australia, occurred during the Paleogene (from around 66 to 23 million years ago (Ma)). Gondwana was not considered a supercontinent by the earliest definition, since the landmasses of Baltica , Laurentia , and Siberia were separated from it. To differentiate it from the Indian region of the same name (see § Name ), it

11742-474: The species. Catfish barbels always occur in pairs. Many larger catfish also have chemoreceptors across their entire bodies, which means they "taste" anything they touch and "smell" any chemicals in the water. "In catfish, gustation plays a primary role in the orientation and location of food". Because their barbels and chemoreception are more important in detecting food, the eyes on catfish are generally small. Like other ostariophysans , they are characterized by

11856-665: The still static remainder of South America and Africa, and this westward movement lasted until the Early Cretaceous 126.7 Ma . From there rifting propagated northward during the Late Jurassic c. 150 Ma or Early Cretaceous c. 140 Ma most likely forcing dextral movements between sub-plates on either side. South of the Walvis Ridge and Rio Grande Rise the Paraná and Etendeka magmatics resulted in further ocean-floor spreading c. 130 to 135 Ma and

11970-399: The subduction process initiated in the early Carboniferous. This was relatively short-lived (lasting about 20 million years), and initial contact of the two landmasses occurred in the mid-Carboniferous, with broader collision during the early Permian. In the Devonian, an island arc named Chaitenia accreted to Patagonia in what is now south-central Chile. Gondwana and Laurasia formed

12084-521: The suffix -virales . Gondwana Gondwana ( / ɡ ɒ n d ˈ w ɑː n ə / ) was a large landmass, sometimes referred to as a supercontinent . The remnants of Gondwana make up around two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America , Africa , Antarctica , Australia , Zealandia , Arabia , and the Indian Subcontinent . Gondwana was formed by the accretion of several cratons (large stable blocks of

12198-636: The two developed but remained an embayment until the Eocene-Oligocene boundary when the Circumpolar Current developed and the glaciation of Antarctica began. Australia was warm and wet during the Palaeocene and dominated by rainforest. The opening of the Tasman Gateway at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary ( 33 Ma ) resulted in abrupt cooling but the Oligocene became a period of high rainfall with swamps in southeast Australia. During

12312-598: The widespread use of the spines for taxonomic and phylogenetic studies the fields have struggled to effectively use the information due to a lack of consistency in the nomenclature, with a general standard for the descriptive anatomy of catfish spines proposed in 2022 to try and resolve this problem. Juvenile catfish, like most fish, have relatively large heads, eyes, and posterior median fins in comparison to larger, more mature individuals. These juveniles can be readily placed in their families, particularly those with highly derived fin or body shapes; in some cases, identification of

12426-578: The word family ( familia ) was assigned to the rank indicated by the French famille , while order ( ordo ) was reserved for a higher rank, for what in the 19th century had often been named a cohors (plural cohortes ). Some of the plant families still retain the names of Linnaean "natural orders" or even the names of pre-Linnaean natural groups recognized by Linnaeus as orders in his natural classification (e.g. Palmae or Labiatae ). Such names are known as descriptive family names. In

12540-421: The world. Most catfish are bottom feeders . In general, they are negatively buoyant , which means that they usually sink rather than float due to a reduced gas bladder and a heavy, bony head. Catfish have a variety of body shapes, though most have a cylindrical body with a flattened ventrum to allow for benthic feeding. A flattened head allows for digging through the substrate, as well as perhaps serving as

12654-483: Was followed by a Silurian Hot House period. The End-Ordovician extinction , which resulted in 27% of marine invertebrate families and 57% of genera going extinct, occurred during this shift from Ice House to Hot House. By the end of the Ordovician, Cooksonia , a slender, ground-covering plant, became the first known vascular plant to establish itself on land. This first colonisation occurred exclusively around

12768-475: Was hardly affected. Gondwanatheria is an extinct group of non- therian mammals with a Gondwanan distribution (South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Zealandia and Antarctica) during the Late Cretaceous and Palaeogene. Xenarthra and Afrotheria , two placental clades, are of Gondwanan origin and probably began to evolve separately c. 105 Ma when Africa and South America separated. The laurel forests of Australia, New Caledonia, and New Zealand have

12882-551: Was the first to apply it consistently to the division of all three kingdoms of nature (then minerals , plants , and animals ) in his Systema Naturae (1735, 1st. Ed.). For plants, Linnaeus' orders in the Systema Naturae and the Species Plantarum were strictly artificial, introduced to subdivide the artificial classes into more comprehensible smaller groups. When the word ordo was first consistently used for natural units of plants, in 19th-century works such as

12996-561: Was used as a French equivalent for this Latin ordo . This equivalence was explicitly stated in the Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle 's Lois de la nomenclature botanique (1868), the precursor of the currently used International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants . In the first international Rules of botanical nomenclature from the International Botanical Congress of 1905,

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