Temperate perch
family of fishes
Percichthyidae, the temperate perches, are a family of freshwater ray-finned fish found in Australia and southern South America. Formerly placed in the order Perciformes, they are now placed in the order Centrarchiformes.
The name Percichthyidae derives from the Latin perca for perch and Ancient Greek ἰχθύς, ichthys for fish.
Evolution
Potential percichthyid fossil remains are known from the Early Paleocene of the El Molino Formation of Bolivia; these remains have been described as resembling those of the fossil Percichthys hondoensis from the Eocene of Argentina. One articulated specimen is known from the Paleocene portion of the formation, but other remains are known from the Maastrichtian beds of the formation, indicating that percichthyids could have potential Cretaceous origins. However, the condition of this material is unclear. Another fossil percichthyid, Percichthys lonquimayiensis from Chile, was initially dated to the Paleocene, but further studies have found it to be from the Miocene.
Potential percichthyid scales have been recovered from the Miocene-aged fossil deposits of Foulden Maar in New Zealand. If these are of percichthyids, this suggests they had a wider distribution during the Neogene. They also appear to have ranged as far north as the Neotropics during the Oligocene/Miocene, with the fossil genus Santosius known from Brazil.
“Temperate perch” enters the record as family of fishes. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Temperate, perch and family can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 2, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q603255. The Library of Congress control number is sh85099724. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Temperate perch” 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.