Ichthyology
ichthyology is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of fish. shark and skate) and agnata (jawless fish). As of February 2022, around 34,800 species have been described. It is estimated that each year 100 new species of fish are identified.
Etymology
The word «ichthyology» derives from the modern Latin «ichthyologia», which in turn comes from the Greek and arises as a combination of the words ἰχθύς, ichthýs, which means &# 34;fish"; and λογία, logos, meaning "to study".
History
Knowledge related to fish was already present in antiquity, when Paleolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherer peoples incorporated the product of fishing into their diet. Ichthyologist Professor Michael Barton noted:
The earliest ichthyologists were hunters and gatherers who had learned how to obtain the most useful fish, where to obtain them in abundance, and at what times they might be the most available.The first ctiologists were hunters and collectors who had learned how to get the most useful fish, where to get them in abundance and at what times they might be more available.Michael Barton
Ichthyology, as a formal science, began with the investigations of Aristotle, who recorded the structure and habits of 115 species of fish in Greece. Aristotle's approach came from the practical knowledge acquired by the fishermen of the area, who also provided the nomenclature based on the common names by which they knew the different species. Aristotle described the varieties today known as Lophius spp., Conger conger, Muraena helena, Anguilla anguilla, Mugil cephalus and various Thunnus spp , among others.
Except for some contributions from Pliny the Elder, Claudius Aelianus and Athenaeus, until the middle of the XVI century there were no significant advances in discipline. Scholars who devoted themselves to the subject often introduced erroneous knowledge based on superstitions or fables.
In 1554 Guillaume Rondelet published his Libri de piscibus marinis, in quibus veræ piscium effigies expressæ sunt (Books on marine fish, in which the true images of the fish are depicted), in in which 244 marine species are described, mainly Mediterranean, and the fabulous stories recognized as true up to that moment are severely questioned.
In 1648 Willem Piso published posthumously the work by Georg Marcgraf Historia naturalis Brasiliae, which describes 100 species of fish from the coasts of Brazil. The work, with color illustrations, was published the first in which fish were described outside the Mediterranean area.
In 1686, John Ray and Francis Willughby's Historia Piscium described more than 400.
The title of "father of ichthyology" It is credited to Peter Artedi, a student of Linnaeus who identified five orders of fish (including cetaceans) and divided them into genera. Artedi accidentally drowned in an Amsterdam canal and Linnaeus published his manuscripts posthumously.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, a constant stream of specimens from around the world flooded museums.
In the 1780s, Marcus Elieser Bloch published Ichthyologia as a series of volumes of plates, and after his death his associate Johann Gottlob Schneider would publish M. E. Blochii Systemae Ichthyologiae, describing 1519 species.
At the dawn of the XIX century, Lacepede thus continued, in the ichthyological field, the work of Count de Buffon but was the work Regne animal distribué d'après son organization by Georges Cuvier, published between 1817-1830, a key step for the classification of fish. Cuvier worked with his student Achille Valenciennes to put out the 22-volume Histoire Naturelle des Poissons in the 1830s - which although never completed, described 4514 species.
Albert Günther published his Catalogue of the Fishes of the British Museum between 1859 and 1870, describing more than 6800 species and citing other 1700.
Considered the greatest ichthyologist of the early XX century is David Starr Jordan, who wrote 650 books and articles on the subject, in addition to serving as president of Indiana University and Stanford University.
Celebrations
Argentina: National Ichthyology Day is celebrated on September 10 in honor of the naturalist Raúl Adolfo Ringuelet.