North American naked sole
Gymnachirus melas Nichols, 1916
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
Gymnachirus melas, the North American naked sole, also known as the naked sole, is a species of sole in the family Achiridae. It was described by John Treadwell Nichols in 1916. It is known from Mexico, Cuba, the Bahamas, and the United States. It dwells at a depth range of 2 to 185 metres (10 to 610 ft). It reaches a maximum length of 22 cm (8.7 in).
Due to a lack of known threats to its population, the North American naked sole is currently ranked as Least Concern by the IUCN redlist. It is caught as bycatch in shrimp and other trawls. It is of minor interest in commercial fisheries.
Wikipedia contributors, Gymnachirus melas; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T12:42:57.445197+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Gymnachirus melas Nichols, 1916
- Name authority
- Nichols, 1916
- Common name
- North American naked sole
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Pleuronectiformes
- Family
- Achiridae
- Genus
- Gymnachirus
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderPleuronectiformes
- suborderPleuronectoidei
- familyAchiridae Rafinesque, 1815
- genusGymnachirus Kaup, 1858
- speciesGymnachirus melas Nichols, 1916
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Gymnachirus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| fringed soleGymnachirus texae (Gunter, 1936) | AchiridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| flabby soleGymnachirus nudus Kaup, 1858 | AchiridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- Nichols, J. T. (1916). A new Gymnachirus from North Carolina. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, v. 35 (art. 9): 71–72. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:3HP26. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.