Arabibarbus

Freyhof, JÖrg, Yoğurtçuoğlu, Baran, Jouladeh-Roudbar, Arash & Kaya, Cüneyt, 2025, Handbook of Freshwater Fishes of West Asia, De Gruyter : 90

Arabibarbus

A genus of three very large ( A. grypus ) to medium-sized species endemic to West Asia. These are hexaploid barbels of the yellowfish ( Torini ) group, distinguished by large, shield-shaped scales with numerous parallel radii. The last unbranched dorsal ray is weakly to strongly ossified, without serrae.They have two pairs of barbels,8½ branched dorsal rays, and 5½ branched anal rays. Their phylogenetic position has long been uncertain, but most authors categorised them in Barbus , as no alternative was available. One

species, A. grypus , occurs in the Persian Gulf basin. Some authors have placed it in the Asian genus Tor . However, it has only recently become clear that these three species belong together, and with Carasobarbus , Mesopotamichthys , and Ptercapoeta form the sister group of the large African genus Labeobarbus . Both Arabian species are superficially similar but allopatric, and the molecular characters studied suggest that they have a long, isolated evolutionary history. Further reading. Borkenhagen 2014 (description, phylogeny); Yang et al. 2015; Borkenhagen 2017 (phylogeny).