northern red snapper
Lutjanus campechanus (Poey, 1860)
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.
Red Snapper caught in the Gulf of Mexico, about 20 miles south of Port Fourchon, LA
Geeklikepi · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The northern red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a snapper belonging to the family Lutjanidae. It is native to the western Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico, where it inhabits environments associated with reefs. This species is commercially important and is also sought after as a game fish.
It is closely related to Lutjanus purpureus, the southern red snapper or Caribbean red snapper, and both have been considered to be the same species in the past.
Wikipedia contributors, Northern red snapper; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T09:03:53.448541+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Lutjanus campechanus (Poey, 1860)
- Name authority
- (Poey, 1860)
- Common name
- northern red snapper
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Family
- Lutjanidae
- Genus
- Lutjanus
- 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
- familyLutjanidae Gill, 1861
- genusLutjanus Bloch, 1790
- speciesLutjanus campechanus (Poey, 1860)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Lutjanus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Lutjanus adetii (Castelnau, 1873) | LutjanidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Lutjanus alexandrei Moura & Lindeman, 2007 | LutjanidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Lutjanus ambiguus (Poey, 1860) | LutjanidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| mullet snapperLutjanus aratus (Günther, 1864) | LutjanidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| amarillo snapperLutjanus argentiventris (Peters, 1869) | LutjanidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Bengal snapperLutjanus bengalensis (Bloch, 1790) | LutjanidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| blueline snapperLutjanus coeruleolineatus (Rüppell, 1838) | LutjanidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| colorado snapperLutjanus colorado Jordan & Gilbert, 1882 | LutjanidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Lutjanus decussatus (Cuvier, 1828) | LutjanidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Lutjanus dentatus (Duméril, 1861) | LutjanidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Lutjanus dodecacanthoides (Bleeker, 1854) | LutjanidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Lutjanus endecacanthus Bleeker, 1863 | LutjanidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Lutjanus blackfordii Goode & Bean, 1878 Goode & Bean, 1878 | synonym |
| Mesoprion campechanus Poey, 1860 Poey, 1860 | synonym |
| Neomaenis aya (Bloch) (Bloch) | synonym |
| Lutjanus campechianus Poey, 1860 Poey, 1860 | synonym |
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.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=159795 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.
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:3WG8J. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.