Butidae

Butidae Temporal range: Early Eocene to present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Butis butis
Ophiocara porocephala
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Gobiiformes
Suborder:	Gobioidei
Family:	Butidae Bleeker, 1874[1]

Butidae is a family of sleeper gobies in the order Gobiiformes. The family was formerly classified as a subfamily of the Eleotridae but the 5th Edition of Fishes of the World classifies it as a family in its own right.^[2] Molecular phylogenetic analyses have demonstrated that the Butidae are a sister clade to the clade containing the families Gobiidae and Gobionellidae and that the Eleotridae is a sister to both of these clades. This means that the Eloetridae as formerly classified was paraphyletic and that its subfamilies should be raised to the status of families.^[3]

The species in the Butidae are largely restricted to tropical and sub-tropical waters of Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania. They are especially diverse in New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand where they can be important components of brackish and freshwater ecosystems.^[3] They are mostly quite small species but the marbled goby (Oxyeleotris marmorata) is a freshwater species of Buitdae from Southeast Asia that can grow to 65 cm (25.6 in) long and is an important food fish.^[4][5]

The earliest known member of the Butidae is the stem group-butid †Carlomonnius Bannikov & Carnevale, 2016 from the Early Eocene-aged Monte Bolca site of Italy. This genus is also the earliest gobioid known from skeletal remains. It was previously considered a gobioid of uncertain affinities^[6], but a 2025 study analyzing more specimens found strong evidence for it being closely related to the Butidae. Carlomonnius had a lifestyle unlike any extant butids, being a very small marine genus that inhabited reef environments, suggesting a similar lifestyle to coral gobies of the Gobiidae. This is unlike extant butids, which primarily inhabit freshwater and brackish habitats, with none inhabiting reef ecosystems.^[7]

1. ^ Richard van der Laan; William N. Eschmeyer & Ronald Fricke (2014). "Family-group names of Recent fishes". Zootaxa. 3882 (2): 001–230. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3882.1.1. PMID 25543675.
2. ^ Nelson, JS; Grande, TC & Wilson, MVH (2016). "Classification of fishes from Fishes of the World 5th Edition" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 January 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
3. ^ ^{a b} Christine Thacker (2011). "Chapter 1.5 Systematics of Butidae and Eleotridae". In Robert Patzner; James L. Van Tassell; Marcelo Kovacic; B. G. Kapoor (eds.). The Biology of Gobies (PDF). CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-57808-436-4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-07-28. Retrieved 2018-07-22.
4. ^ Riehl, R. & Baensch, H.A. (1996): Aquarium Atlas (Volume 1). Voyageur Press. p. 992. ISBN 978-3-88244-050-8
5. ^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Oxyeleotris marmorata". FishBase. September 2017 version.
6. ^ Bannikov, A.F.; Carnevale, G. (2016-03-17). "†Carlomonnius quasigobius gen. et sp. nov.: the first gobioid fish from the Eocene of Monte Bolca, Italy". Bulletin of Geosciences: 13–22. doi:10.3140/bull.geosci.1577. hdl:2318/1632180. ISSN 1802-8225.
7. ^ ^{a b c} Reichenbacher, Bettina; Bannikov, Alexander F.; Erpenbeck, Dirk (2025-12-31). "Earliest gobioid fishes were coral-reef associated dwarfs: New evidence from the Eocene of Monte Bolca, Italy". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 23 (1) 2546601. doi:10.1080/14772019.2025.2546601. ISSN 1477-2019.
8. ^ Bailly N, ed. (2015). "Butinae Bleeker, 1874". FishBase. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
9. ^ Gierl, Christoph; Reichenbacher, Bettina; Gaudant, Jean; Erpenbeck, Dirk; Pharisat, André (2013-05-15). "An Extraordinary Gobioid Fish Fossil from Southern France". PLOS ONE. 8 (5) e64117. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...864117G. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064117. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3655028. PMID 23691158.

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