Elacatinus

Elacatinus View in CoL clade, including Tigrigobius and Risor clades of Rüber et al., 2003

Tis clade contains many small fishes of the genera Elacatinus Jordan, 1904, Evermannichthys Metzelaar, 1919 , Ginsburgellus Böhlke & Robins, 1968 , Ophiogobius Gill, 1863 , Pariah Böhlke, 1969 , Risor Ginsburg, 1933 , and Tigrigobius Fowler, 1931 . Many of the species in this clade are known for specific environmental adaptations usually in rock reef settings ( Böhlke & Robins, 1968; Rüber et al., 2003; Tyler & Böhlke, 1972). Risor and Evermannichthys as well as several species of Elacatinus are sponge dwellers. Ginsburgellus and Tigrigobius multifasciatus live under sea urchins in shallow water. Many species of Elacatinus are known as cleaner gobies. Other species of Elacatinus and most species of Tigrigobius live secretively in reef caves and various reef environments. It is clear from these environmental adaptations that the prospect for preservation of otoliths in the fossil record is relatively low. In addition, as with the otoliths of the fishes of the Gobiosoma clade, the identification of isolated otoliths of this clade is hindered by their small size making them easily confused with otoliths of juveniles of larger gobies.

Te aforementioned genera of this clade contain nearly 50 valid species according to Fricke et al. (2023): 24 species in Elacatinus , 16 in Tigrigobius , five in Evermannichthys , and one each in Risor , Ginsburgellus , Ophiogobius , and Pariah . Otoliths are known from only a few of these taxa: Elacatinus chancei (Beebe & Hollister, 1933) ( Fig. 37a–b View Fig ), E. horstii (Metzelaar, 1922) ( Fig. 37c– d View Fig ), E. lori Colin, 2002 ( Fig. 37e View Fig ), E. oceanops Jordan, 1904

( Fig. 37f View Fig ), E. puncticulatus (Ginsburg, 1938) ( Fig. 37g View Fig ), E. xanthipora ( Böhlke & Robins, 1968) ( Fig. 37h View Fig ), Ginsburgellus novemlineatus (Fowler, 1950) ( Fig. 38a View Fig ), Risor ruber (Rosén, 1911) ( Fig. 38c View Fig ), and Tigrigobius macrodon (Beebe & Tee Van, 1928) ( Fig. 38d View Fig ). Because of this low coverage, the fossil otoliths described here have been left in open nomenclature, except for one otolith that can be attributed to an extant species ( Ginsburgellus novemlineatus ).