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The Gasterosteidae are a family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 of fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
 including the sticklebacks. FishBase
FishBase

FishBase is a comprehensive database of information about fish. , it included descriptions of over 30,000 species, over 260,000 common names in hundreds of languages, over 46,000 pictures, and references to more than 42,000 works in the scientific literature....
 currently recognises sixteen species in the family, grouped in five genera. However several of the species have a number of recognised subspecies, and the taxonomy of the family is thought to be in need of revision.






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Faroe Stamp 248 Stickleback (gasterosteus Aculeatus)
The Gasterosteidae are a family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 of fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
 including the sticklebacks. FishBase
FishBase

FishBase is a comprehensive database of information about fish. , it included descriptions of over 30,000 species, over 260,000 common names in hundreds of languages, over 46,000 pictures, and references to more than 42,000 works in the scientific literature....
 currently recognises sixteen species in the family, grouped in five genera. However several of the species have a number of recognised subspecies, and the taxonomy of the family is thought to be in need of revision. Although some authorities give the common name of the family as "sticklebacks and tube-snouts", the tube-snouts are currently classified in the related family Aulorhynchidae.

An unusual features of sticklebacks is that they have no scales, although some species have bony armour plates. They are related to pipefish
Pipefish

Pipefishes or pipe-fishes are a subfamily of small fishes, which with the seahorses form a distinct family....
 and seahorse
Seahorse

Seahorses are a genus of fish belonging to the family Syngnathidae, which also includes pipefish and leafy sea dragons. There are over 32 species of seahorse, mainly found in shallow tropical and temperate waters throughout the world....
s.

Stickleback species are found in fresh water environments in Europe, Asia, and North America. They feed on small crustaceans and fish larvae.

Sticklebacks are distinguished by the presence of strong and clearly isolated spines in the dorsal fin
Dorsal fin

A wikt:dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of some fish, whales, dolphins, and porpoises, as well as the ichthyosaurs. Its main purpose is to stabilize the animal against rolling and assist in sudden turns....
. All species show a similar mating behaviour, which is also unusual among fishes. The males construct a nest from vegetation held together by secretions from their kidneys. The males then attract females to the nest who lay their eggs inside where the male can fertilise them. The male then guards the eggs until they hatch.

Three-spined stickleback

The family includes the three-spined stickleback
Three-spined stickleback

The three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, is a fish native to much of northern Europe, northern Asia and North America. It has been introduced into parts of southern and central Europe, including Belgium, where the species was featured on a 14-franc postage stamp issued in Belgium in 1990....
 Gasterosteus aculeatus aculeatus, common in Northern Temperate Climates around the world including Europe, most of northern North America, and Japan and colloquially known in United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 as the "tiddler", or "sprick". In the Republic of Ireland they are commonly known as "pinkeens" due to the reddish colour of the male three spined stickleback's throat during breeding season. Niko Tinbergen's studies of the behaviour of this fish were important in the early development of ethology
Ethology

Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior, and a branch of zoology .Although many naturalists have studied aspects of animal behavior through the centuries, the modern discipline of ethology is usually considered to have arisen with the work in the 1930s of Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and Austrian biologist Konrad Lorenz,...
 as an example of a fixed action pattern
Fixed action pattern

In ethology, a fixed action pattern is an instinctive behavioral sequence that is indivisible and runs to completion. Fixed action patterns are invariant and are produced by a biological neural network known as the innate releasing mechanism in response to an external sensory system stimulus known as a sign stimulus or relea...
.

Species

  • Genus Apeltes Mayer, 1956.
    • Gasterosteus aculeatus
    • Gasterosteus microcephalus Girard
      Charles Frédéric Girard

      Charles Fr?d?ric Girard was a France biologist specializing on ichthyology and herpetology.Born in Mulhouse, France, he studied at the College of Neuch?tel, Switzerland as a student of Louis Agassiz....
      , 1854      .
    • Blackspotted stickleback, Gasterosteus wheatlandi Putnam, 1867.
  • Genus Pungitius
    Pungitius

    Pungitius is a genus of fish in the Gasterosteidae family.It contains the following species:* ellinopyg?steos * ukranian stickleback * nine-spined stickleback ...
    • Pungitius hellenicus Stephanidis, 1971.
    • Pungitius kaibarae (Tanaka, 1915).
    • Smoothtail ninespine stickleback, Pungitius laevis (Cuvier
      Georges Cuvier

      Baron Georges L?opold Chr?tien Fr?d?ric Dagobert Cuvier was a France natural history and zoology. He was the elder brother of Fr?d?ric Cuvier , also a naturalist....
      , 1829)      .
    • Southern ninespine stickleback, Pungitius platygaster (Kessler, 1859).
    • Ninespine stickleback
      Ninespine Stickleback

      The ninespine stickleback, Pungitius pungitius, also called 10 spined stickleback, is a freshwater species of fish that inhabits temperate waters....
      , Pungitius pungitius (Linnaeus
      Carolus Linnaeus

      Carl Linnaeus was a Sweden botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern alpha taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology....
      , 1758)      .
    • Amur stickleback, Pungitius sinensis (Guichenot, 1869).
    • Sakhalin stickleback, Pungitius tymensis (Nikolskii, 1889).
  • Genus Spinachia
    • Sea stickleback, Spinachia spinachia (Linnaeus
      Carolus Linnaeus

      Carl Linnaeus was a Sweden botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern alpha taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology....
      , 1758)      .


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