Achondrostoma occidentale
species of fish
Achondrostoma occidentale, also known as the Western ruivaco, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces. Eurasian minnows and related fishes. This species is endemic to Portugal to the north of Lisbon on the Atlantic slope of western Portugal.
Taxonomy
Achondrostoma occidentale was first formally described as Chondrostoma occidentale in 2005 by the ichthyologists Joana Isabel Robalo, Vítor Carvalho Almada, Carla Sousa Santos, M. Inês Moreira and Ignacio Doadrio with its type locality given as the Safarujo River at Mafra and the Safarujo basin in Portugal. The Western ruivaco is now classified as a valid species in the genus Achondrostoma within the subfamily Leuciscinae of the family Leuciscidae.
Etymology
Achondrostoma occideetale belongs to the genus Achondrostoma, this name places the prefix a-, meaning "without", in front of the genus name Chondrostoma, which is a combination of chondros, a word meaning "gristle" or "cartilage", with stoma, meaning "mouth". This is an allusion to the lack of the horny plates in the mouths of these fishes, which are present in Chondrostoma . The specific name, occidentale, means "western" and is a reference to this species distribution within the Oeste area of Portugal, oeste meaning "west".
Description
Achondrostoma occidentale differs from other species in its genus by having 40-43 canaliculate scales on the lateral line with 6 or 7 scales above and 2 or 3 scales below the lateral line. The axillary pelvic scale is shorter than or equal to the base of the pelvic fin.
The public source identifies “Achondrostoma occidentale” as species of fish. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Achondrostoma, occidentale and species.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2061866. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2005.
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This entry incorporates text from “Achondrostoma occidentale” 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.