English sole

Open encyclopedia reference

The English sole (Parophrys vetulus) is a species of flatfish in the family Pleuronectidae. It is a demersal fish that lives on sandy and muddy bottoms in estuaries and near shore areas, at depths of up to 550 metres (1,800 ft). It reaches up to 57 centimetres (22 in) in length, and can weigh up to 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lb). Its native habitat is the eastern Pacific, stretching from the coast of Baja California in the south to the Bering Sea in the north.

The English sole is an important commercial fish, primarily caught off Washington, Oregon and California. Though biomass is increasing, catches have been declining since the 1960s and are currently almost at an all-time low.

English sole is known in Spanish as platija limón, or lemon sole, a name by which it is also known in English, though the true lemon sole is a separate species, Microstomus kitt.

Wikipedia contributors, English sole; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:57:10.020994+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Parophrys vetulus Girard, 1854

Name authority

Girard, 1854

Common name

English sole

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Teleostei

Order

Pleuronectiformes

Family

Pleuronectidae

Genus

Parophrys

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.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. gigaclassActinopterygii
8. superclassActinopteri
9. classTeleostei
10. orderPleuronectiformes
11. suborderPleuronectoidei
12. familyPleuronectidae Rafinesque, 1815
13. subfamilyPleuronectinae Rafinesque, 1815
14. genusParophrys Girard, 1854
15. speciesParophrys vetulus Girard, 1854

Close classified relatives

No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.

Browse 86 records assigned to Pleuronectidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

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.

1. Girard, C. F. (1854). Descriptions of new fishes, collected by Dr. A. L. Heermann, naturalist attached to the survey of the Pacific railroad route, under Lieut. R. S. Williamson, U. S. A. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, v. 7: 129–140. 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:4DRYX. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.