prickly sculpin
Cottus asper Richardson, 1836
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.
Coastal Cottus asper caught in Nehalem, Oregon.
Luxquine · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The prickly sculpin (Cottus asper) is a species of ray-finned fish belonging to the family Cottidae, the typical sculpins. It is native to the river drainages of the Pacific Slope of North America from Seward, Alaska south to the Ventura River of Southern California. It extends east of the Continental Divide in the Peace River of British Columbia. It has also been introduced to several reservoirs in Southern California.
Wikipedia contributors, Prickly sculpin; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T05:07:00.980743+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Cottus asper Richardson, 1836
- Name authority
- Richardson, 1836
- Common name
- prickly sculpin
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Perciformes
- Family
- Cottidae
- Genus
- Cottus
- 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
- orderPerciformes
- suborderCottoidei
- familyCottidae Bonaparte, 1831
- genusCottus Linnaeus, 1758
- speciesCottus asper Richardson, 1836
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Cottus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Cottus pollux Günther, 1873 | CottidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| shorthead sculpinCottus confusus Bailey & Bond, 1963 | CottidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cottus chattahoochee Neely, Williams & Mayden, 2007 | CottidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cottus ohmiensis Watanabe, 1960 | CottidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| coastrange sculpinCottus aleuticus Gilbert, 1896 | CottidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cottus baileyi Robins, 1961 | CottidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| mottled sculpinCottus bairdii Girard, 1850 | CottidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cottus beldingii Eigenmann & Eigenmann, 1891 | CottidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cottus bendirei (Bean, 1881) | CottidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cottus czerskii Berg, 1913 | CottidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cottus dzungaricus Kottelat, 2006 | CottidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cottus gratzianowi Sideleva, Naseka & Zhidkov, 2015 | CottidaeChordata | 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 |
|---|---|
| Trachidermus richardsonii Heckel, 1837 Heckel, 1837 | synonym |
| Centridermichthys parvus (Girard, 1854) (Girard, 1854) | synonym |
| Cottopsis parvus Girard, 1854 Girard, 1854 | synonym |
| Cottopsis asper (Richardson, 1836) (Richardson, 1836) | synonym |
| Centridermichthys asper (Richardson, 1836) (Richardson, 1836) | 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.
- Richardson, J. (1836). The Fish. In: Fauna Boreali-Americana; or the zoology of the northern parts of British America: containing descriptions of the objects of natural history collected on the late northern land expeditions, under the command of Sir John Franklin, R.N. J. Bentley, London, Part 3: i–xv + 1–327, Pls. 74–97. [Reference was incorrectly given as 1837; correct date is 1836 (WNE June 12, 2015).]. 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:YYFJ. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.