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NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD

California corbina

Menticirrhus undulatus (Girard, 1854)

Source-backed taxonomic record

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.

Picture I took of a 20" corbina I caught on 2006-06-11 at Blacks Beach in San Diego. I was using sand crabs on a carolina rig.

Picture I took of a 20" corbina I caught on 2006-06-11 at Blacks Beach in San Diego. I was using sand crabs on a carolina rig.

N1ywb at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Image source

Provider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.

Open encyclopedia reference

The California corbina (Menticirrhus undulatus), is a marine demersal fish in the croaker family. It can often be found along sandy beaches and in shallow bays. This species travels in small groups along the surf zone in a few inches of water to depths of 20 meters (66 ft). Other names include "California kingcroaker", "California whiting", and "kingfish".

Wikipedia contributors, California corbina; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:23:50.418420+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name
Menticirrhus undulatus (Girard, 1854)
Name authority
(Girard, 1854)
Common name
California corbina
Rank
species
Accepted status
accepted
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Teleostei
Family
Sciaenidae
Genus
Menticirrhus
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. familySciaenidae Cuvier, 1829
  11. genusMenticirrhus Gill, 1861
  12. speciesMenticirrhus undulatus (Girard, 1854)

Close classified relatives

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

SpeciesClassificationSource status
Menticirrhus ophicephalus (Jenyns, 1840)SciaenidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
northern kingcroakerMenticirrhus saxatilis (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)SciaenidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
southern kingcroakerMenticirrhus americanus (Linnaeus, 1758)SciaenidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Gulf kingcroakerMenticirrhus littoralis (Holbrook, 1847)SciaenidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Menticirrhus cuiaranensis Marceniuk, Caires, Rotundo, Cerqueira, Siccha-Ramirez, Wosiacki & Oliveira, 2020SciaenidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
highfin kingfishMenticirrhus nasus (Günther, 1868)SciaenidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Paita kingfishMenticirrhus paitensis Hildebrand, 1946SciaenidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Panama kingfishMenticirrhus panamensis (Steindachner, 1876)SciaenidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied

Browse 231 records assigned to Sciaenidae.

Names & synonyms

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

Recorded nameSource status
Umbrina undulata Girard, 1854 Girard, 1854synonym

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. https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=276150 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:6QZKH. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.