The deep-water sculpins are a small family, Abyssocottidae, of sculpins that are almost entirely restricted to Lake Baikal in Siberia, most of them living at depths below 170 m.

Some species, such as Limnocottus godlewskii and Herzenstein's rough sculpin, Asprocottus herzensteini are abundant in the lake.

The largest species of the family is the red sculpin, Procottus jeittelesii, at 28 cm long, while the dwarf sculpin, Procottus gurwici, reaches just 6 cm.

Classification

In some classifications the genus Cyphocottus Gratzianov, 1902 is considered synonymous with Limnocottus, and some Procottus species are split into Metacottus Taliev, 1946.

There are currently thought to be twenty-four species in seven genera:

• Genus Abyssocottus
  • Abyssocottus elochini Taliev, 1955.
  • Abyssocottus gibbosus Berg, 1906.
  • Abyssocottus korotneffi Berg, 1906.
• Genus Asprocottus
  • Asprocottus abyssalis Taliev, 1955.
  • Herzenstein's rough sculpin, Asprocottus herzensteini Berg, 1906.
  • Asprocottus intermedius Taliev, 1955.
  • Asprocottus korjakovi minor Sideleva, 2001.
  • Asprocottus minor Sideleva, 2001.
  • Asprocottus parmiferus Taliev, 1955.
  • Asprocottus platycephalus Taliev, 1955.
  • Asprocottus pulcher Taliev, 1955.
• Genus Cottinella
  • Short-headed sculpin, Cottinella boulengeri (Berg, 1906).
• Genus Cyphocottus
  • Cyphocottus eurystomus (Taliev, 1955).
  • Cyphocottus megalops (Gratzianov, 1902).
• Genus Limnocottus
  • Limnocottus bergianus Taliev, 1935.
  • Limnocottus godlewskii (Dybowski, 1874).
  • Limnocottus griseus (Taliev, 1955).
  • Limnocottus pallidus Taliev, 1948.
• Genus Neocottus
  • Neocottus thermalis Sideleva, 2002.
  • Neocottus werestschagini (Taliev, 1935).
• Genus Procottus
  • Procottus gotoi Sideleva, 2001.
  • Dwarf sculpins, Procottus gurwicii (Taliev, 1946).
  • Red sculpin, Procottus jeittelesii (Dybowski, 1874).
  • Procottus major Taliev, 1949.

References

• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). "Abyssocottidae" in FishBase. January 2006 version.
• "Abyssocottidae". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=553241. Retrieved 27 March 2006.