Heterobranchus

Heterobranchus; Temporal range: Late Miocene–present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
	Heterobranchus isopterus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Siluriformes
Family:	Clariidae
Genus:	Heterobranchus; É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1809
Type species
	Heterobranchus bidorsalis; É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1809
Species
	6, see text.

Heterobranchus is a genus of airbreathing catfishes native to Africa.

Depending on the exact species involved, fish of this genus reach from 64 to 150 cm (25 to 59 in) with the giant vundu (H. longifilis) being the largest completely freshwater fish in southern Africa, reaching 150 cm (59 in) SL and weighing up to 55 kg (121 lb).^[1]

This genus had a wider distribution in the past. The extinct species H. palaeindicus is known from the Early Pliocene of India (Siwalik Hills). The extinct species H. austriacus was widely distributed throughout central, western, and eastern Europe during the late Miocene. H. austriacus likely immigrated from Africa to Europe, potentially in repeated waves, when land connections formed between both continents around this time.^[2]^[3]

Species

This genus contains four recent and two fossil species:^[2]^[1]

Recent species

Heterobranchus bidorsalis É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1809 (African Catfish)
Heterobranchus boulengeri (Pellegrin, 1922)
Heterobranchus isopterus (Bleeker, 1863) —found in West Africa—
Heterobranchus longifilis Valenciennes, 1840 (Vundu; Sampa)

Fossil species

†Heterobranchus austriacus (Thenius, 1952)
†Heterobranchus palaeindicus (Lydekker, 1886)

References

^ ^a ^b Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Heterobranchus". FishBase. December 2011 version.
^ ^a ^b Ferraris, Carl J. Jr. (2007). "Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types" (PDF). Zootaxa. 1418: 1–628. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1418.1.1.
^ Kovalchuk, Oleksandr; Ferraris, Carl J. (2016). "Late Cenozoic catfishes of Southeastern Europe with inference to their taxonomy and palaeogeography". Palaeontologia Electronica. 19 (3). doi:10.26879/616.

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[fishbase-1] Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Heterobranchus". FishBase. December 2011 version.

[Ferraris-2] Ferraris, Carl J. Jr. (2007). "Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types" (PDF). Zootaxa. 1418: 1–628. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1418.1.1.

[3] Kovalchuk, Oleksandr; Ferraris, Carl J. (2016). "Late Cenozoic catfishes of Southeastern Europe with inference to their taxonomy and palaeogeography". Palaeontologia Electronica. 19 (3). doi:10.26879/616.

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