globehead parrotfish

Open encyclopedia reference

Scarus globiceps, commonly known as the globehead, violet-lined, speckled or roundhead parrotfish, is a marine fish native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where it lives in coral reefs. French naturalist Achille Valenciennes described the globehead parrotfish in 1840. The species was the first parrotfish collected by Charles Darwin—from the waters around Tahiti and then from the Cocos Islands; the former was described as a new species and given the name Scarus lepidus by Leonard Jenyns, while the latter was confirmed as the current species. In 1900, Henry Weed Fowler described a specimen from Caroline Island as Scarus pronus, which was later synonymised with this species. The globehead parrotfish can grow up to 45 cm (18 in) long and weigh up to 0.5 kg (1.1 lb). The adult male in terminal phase has a predominantly green body with its scales bordered with salmon pink. The tail fin is green with salmon-pink bands. It has a horizontal pink band bordered with green running from the snout through its eyes to the end of the opercle.

Wikipedia contributors, Scarus globiceps; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:46:51.115509+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Scarus globiceps Valenciennes, 1840

Name authority

Valenciennes, 1840

Common name

globehead parrotfish

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Teleostei

Family

Labridae

Genus

Scarus

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. familyLabridae Cuvier, 1816
11. subfamilyScarinae Rafinesque, 1810
12. tribeScarini Rafinesque, 1810
13. genusScarus Forsskål, 1775
14. speciesScarus globiceps Valenciennes, 1840

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Scarus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 527 records assigned to Labridae.

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. Cuvier, G.; Valenciennes A. (1840). Histoire naturelle des poissons. Tome Quatorzième. Suite Du Livre Seizième. Labroïdes. Livre Dix-Septième. Des Malacoptérygiens. Pitois-Levrault, Paris., v. 14: i–xxii + 2 pp. + 1–464 + 4 pp., Pls. 389–420. 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:4V3K2. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.