Bryconidae

Bryconidae
Temporal range: Oligocene to present
Two large bryconids in Bonito: Salminus brasiliensis (foreground) and Brycon hilarii (background)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Division: Teleostei
(unranked): Otophysi
Order: Characiformes
Suborder: Characoidei
Family: Bryconidae
C. H. Eigenmann, 1912
Type genus
Brycon
Subfamilies

see text

Bryconidae, also known as bryconids, is a family of freshwater fishes belonging to the order Characiformes. They are native to South America. Some species reach particularly large sizes for characins, with Salminus franciscanus being one of the largest characiforms overall.

Genera:

The earliest known fossil member of this group is †Brycon avus (Woodward, 1898) from the Oligocene-aged Tremembé Formation of Brazil. A slightly older potential specimen of B. avus is also known from the Late Eocene/Early Oligocene of the Aiuruoca Basin.

The following cladogram based on a 2014 maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of Bryconidae. It recovers the consensus that Brycon is not monophyletic as the genus encompasses multiple lineages:

⊟

The most recent common ancestor of Bryconidae is thought to have originated in Northwestern South America.

References

  1. 1 2 Richard van der Laan; William N. Eschmeyer & Ronald Fricke (2014). "Family-group names of recent fishes". Zootaxa. 3882 (2): 1–230. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3882.1.1. PMID 25543675.
  2. ↑ Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Bryconidae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
  3. ↑ "Bryconidae". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  4. ↑ Lima, Flávio C. T.; Britski, Heraldo A. (2007). "Salminus franciscanus, a new species from the rio São Francisco basin, Brazil (Ostariophysi: Characiformes: Characidae)". Neotropical Ichthyology. 5 (3): 237–244. Bibcode:2007NeoIc...5..237L. doi:10.1590/S1679-62252007000300001. ISSN 1679-6225.
  5. ↑ Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Bryconidae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  6. ↑ Abe, Kelly T.; Mariguela, Tatiane C.; Avelino, Gleisy S.; Foresti, Fausto; Oliveira, Claudio (2014-07-08). "Systematic and historical biogeography of the Bryconidae (Ostariophysi: Characiformes) suggesting a new rearrangement of its genera and an old origin of Mesoamerican ichthyofauna". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 14 (1): 152. Bibcode:2014BMCEE..14..152A. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-14-152. ISSN 1471-2148. PMC 4109779. PMID 25005252.
  7. ↑ Malabarba, Maria Cláudia S. L. (1998). "Phylogeny of Fossil Characiformes and Paleobiogeography of the Tremembé Formation, São Paulo, Brazil.". Phylogeny and Classification of Neotropical Fishes. Part 1 - Fossils and Geological Evidence. pp. 69–84.
  8. ↑ Malabarba, María Claudia de S. L. (2004). "On the paleoichthyofauna from the Aiuruoca Tertiary Basin, Minas Gerais State, Brazil". Ameghiniana (in Spanish). 41 (4): 515–519. ISSN 1851-8044.
  9. ↑ Abe, Kelly T.; Mariguela, Tatiane C.; Avelino, Gleisy S.; Foresti, Fausto; Oliveira, Claudio (8 July 2014). "Systematic and historical biogeography of the Bryconidae (Ostariophysi: Characiformes) suggesting a new rearrangement of its genera and an old origin of Mesoamerican ichthyofauna". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 14 (152) 152. Bibcode:2014BMCEE..14..152A. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-14-152. PMC 4109779. PMID 25005252.
  10. 1 2 Márquez, Edna Judith; Gómez-Chavarría, Daniel Alfredo; Alzate, Juan Fernando (August 27, 2024). "Exploring the mitochondrial genomes and phylogenetic relationships of trans-Andean Bryconidae species (Actinopterygii: Ostariophysi: Characiformes)". PLOS ONE. 19 (8) e0300830. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0300830. PMC 11349099. PMID 39190628.