Cottunculus

Ingvar Byrkjedal & Alexei M. Orlov, 2007, A new species of Cottunculus (Teleostei: Psychrolutidae) from the Mid Atlantic Ridge., Zootaxa 1580, pp. 63-68 : 63

[[ Genus Cottunculus ]]

Among the approximately 29 species of fathead sculpins (Psychrolutidae) eight species are considered by Eschmeyer (2007) to belong to the genus Cottunculus Collett , 1875 (subfamily Cottunculinae), yet from a morphological analysis Nelson (1982, 1989) concludes that one of these, C. gyrinoides Weber , 1913, belongs to the subfamily Psychrolutinae (possibly genus Ebinania ). The remaining seven species are all benthic and range in depth from shallow inshore waters to about 2200 m. They are distributed in the Pacific ( C. nudus Nelson , 1989) and Atlantic oceans ( C. granulosus Karrer , 1968; C. spinosus Gilchrist , 1906; C. thomsonii ( Guenther , 1882); C. microps Collett , 1875; C. sadko Essipov , 1937; C. konstantinovi Myagkov , 1991), C. sadko also in the Beaufort Sea (Nelson & Nakamura 1980, Nelson 1982, 1989, 2003, Fedorov & Nelson 1986, Myagkov 1991, Mecklenburg et al. 2002). While C. nudus , C. granulosus and C. spinosus are found in tropical waters or on the Southern Hemisphere, the other species range from tropical to northern temperate and arctic waters.