Pungitius hellenicus
species of fish
Pungitius hellenicus, the Greek ninespine stickleback or ellinopygósteos, is a species of fish in the family Gasterosteidae. It is endemic to Greece. Its natural habitats are rivers and freshwater spring. It is threatened by habitat loss and considered critically endangered in the International Red List of
IUCN, Bern Convention (Appendix III).
Characteristics
A combination of five traits are characteristic of the species: caudal peduncle keel absent, its ectocoracoid reduced, dorsal spines fewer than seven, pelvic girdle absent or vestigial, and large lateral scutes absent. The body is moderately compressed. The head is conical and the interorbital area flattened. Bones are weakly ossified and sculpturing poorly developed on the cranial bones. Mouth slightly supraterminal, oblique, and continuous groove separating upper lip from maxillary. Numerous small sharp teeth confined to upper and lower jaws, absent on roof of mouth.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Pungitius hellenicus” as species of fish. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of fish. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 2, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1504889. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pungitius hellenicus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.