least cisco
Coregonus sardinella Valenciennes, 1848
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
Coregonus sardinella, known as the least cisco or the sardine cisco, is a fresh- and brackishwater salmonid fish that inhabits rivers, estuaries and coastal waters of the marginal seas of the Arctic Basin, as well as some large lakes of those areas.
In North America it is found from the Murchison River (Nunavut) west through the Bering Strait to the Bristol Bay (Bering Sea) in Alaska, and in the Russian Arctic from the northern part of the Bering Sea across the Siberian Arctic coast to the Kara Sea and Kara River and further to the Pechora River drainage on the European side.
It has been introduced in some lakes and rivers in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Coregonus sardinella is closely related to the European cisco or vendace Coregonus albula, and also is close to the Siberian peled whitefish C. peled. Most recently, it has been argued to be the same species as the European cisco.
Wikipedia contributors, Coregonus sardinella; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:54:22.110467+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Coregonus sardinella Valenciennes, 1848
- Name authority
- Valenciennes, 1848
- Common name
- least cisco
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Salmoniformes
- Family
- Salmonidae
- Genus
- Coregonus
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · 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.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderSalmoniformes
- familySalmonidae Cuvier, 1816
- subfamilyCoregoninae Bonaparte, 1845
- genusCoregonus Linnaeus, 1758
- speciesCoregonus sardinella Valenciennes, 1848
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Coregonus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Coregonus maxillaris Günther, 1866 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus maraena (Bloch, 1779) | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus ladogae Pravdin, Golubev & Belyaeva, 1938 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus megalops Widegren, 1863 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus macrophthalmus Nüsslin, 1882 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus lucinensis Thienemann, 1933 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus johannae (Wagner, 1910) | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus fontanae Schulz & Freyhof, 2003 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus fatioi Kottelat, 1997 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| muksunCoregonus muksun (Pallas, 1814) | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus pravdinellus Dulkeit, 1949 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| houtingCoregonus oxyrinchus (Linnaeus, 1758) | SalmonidaeChordata | 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 |
|---|---|
| Leucichthys pusillus (Bean, 1889) (Bean, 1889) | synonym |
| Argyrosomus pusillus (Bean, 1889) (Bean, 1889) | synonym |
| Coregonus pusillus Bean, 1889 Bean, 1889 | synonym |
| Coregonus merkii Günther, 1866 Günther, 1866 | synonym |
| Leucichthys sardinella (Valenciennes, 1848) (Valenciennes, 1848) | 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.
- Cuvier, G., & Valenciennes, A. (1848). Histoire naturelle des poissons. Tome vingt et unième. Suite du livre vingt et unième et des Clupéoïdes. Livre vingt-deuxième. De la famille des Salmonoïdes. Tome Vingt et Unième. Suite Du Livre Vingt et Unième et Des Clupéoïdes. Livre Vingt-Deuxième. De La Famille Des Salmonoïdes., v. 21: i–xiv + 1 p. + 1–536, Pls. 607–633. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401210850_021 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:YDBM. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.