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brown bulhead

Ameiurus nebulosus (Lesueur, 1819)

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.

Open encyclopedia reference

The brown bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus) is a fish of the family Ictaluridae that is widely distributed in North America. It is a species of bullhead catfish and is similar to the black bullhead (Ameiurus melas) and yellow bullhead (Ameiurus natalis). It was originally described as Pimelodus nebulosus by Charles Alexandre Lesueur in 1819, and is also referred to as Ictalurus nebulosus.

The brown bullhead is also widely known as the "mud pout", "horned pout", "hornpout", or simply "mud cat", a name also used with the other bullhead species.

The brown bullhead is important as a clan symbol of the Ojibwe people. In their tradition, the bullhead or wawaazisii is one of six beings that came out of the sea to form the original clans.

Wikipedia contributors, Brown bullhead; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T03:32:47.906028+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name
Ameiurus nebulosus (Lesueur, 1819)
Name authority
(Lesueur, 1819)
Common name
brown bulhead
Rank
species
Accepted status
accepted
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Teleostei
Order
Siluriformes
Family
Ictaluridae
Genus
Ameiurus
Extinction status
Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: no · Freshwater: yes · 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. orderSiluriformes
  11. familyIctaluridae Gill, 1861
  12. genusAmeiurus Rafinesque, 1820
  13. speciesAmeiurus nebulosus (Lesueur, 1819)

Close classified relatives

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

SpeciesClassificationSource status
Ameiurus serracanthus (Yerger & Relyea, 1968)IctaluridaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied

Browse 44 records assigned to Ictaluridae.

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. Lesueur, C. A. (1819). Notice de quelques poissons découverts dans les lacs du Haut-Canada, durant l’été de 1816. Mem. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat., 5: 148–161. 2 pls. 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:CQKG. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.