Naso (genus)

Naso Temporal range: Eocene to present[1]
Short-nosed unicornfish, N. brevirostris
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Acanthuridae
Genus:	Naso Lacépède, 1801
Species
See text

Naso is a genus of fish in the surgeonfish family, Acanthuridae. Fish of this genus are known commonly as unicornfishes because of the "rostral protuberance", a hornlike extension of the snout present in some species.^[2]

This genus is distributed across the Indo-Pacific from Africa to Hawaii.^[3]

Species

The 20 currently recognized species in this genus are:^[4]

• Naso annulatus (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825) – whitemargin unicornfish
• Naso brachycentron (Valenciennes, 1835) – humpback unicornfish
• Naso brevirostris (G. Cuvier, 1829) – short-nosed unicornfish, spotted unicornfish
• Naso caeruleacauda J. E. Randall, 1994 – bluetail unicornfish, blue unicorn
• Naso caesius J. E. Randall & Bell, 1992 – gray unicornfish
• Naso elegans (Rüppell, 1829) – elegant unicornfish, orange-spine unicorn
• Naso fageni Morrow, 1954 – horseface unicornfish
• Naso hexacanthus (Bleeker, 1855) – sleek unicornfish, blacktongue unicorn
• Naso lituratus (J. R. Forster, 1801) – orangespine unicornfish
• Naso lopezi Herre, 1927 – elongated unicornfish
• Naso maculatus J. E. Randall & Struhsaker, 1981 – spotted unicornfish
• Naso mcdadei J. W. Johnson, 2002 – squarenose unicornfish
• Naso minor (J. L. B. Smith, 1966) – slender unicorn
• Naso reticulatus J. E. Randall, 2001 – reticulated unicornfish
• Naso tergus H. C. Ho, K. N. Shen & C. W. Chang, 2011
• Naso thynnoides (G. Cuvier, 1829) – oneknife unicornfish
• Naso tonganus (Valenciennes, 1835) – bulbnose unicornfish
• Naso tuberosus Lacépède, 1801 – humpnose unicornfish
• Naso unicornis (Forsskål, 1775) – bluespine unicornfish
• Naso vlamingii (Valenciennes, 1835) – bignose unicornfish

Gallery

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  Orangespine unicornfish, Naso lituratus

• 

  Bignose unicornfish, Naso vlamingii

• 

  Bluespine unicornfish, Naso unicornis

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  Whitemargin unicornfish, Naso annulatus

• 

  Naso tonganus

References

1. Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology 364: 560. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
2. Dayton, C. (2001). Genetic evolution among selected members of the genus Naso (Nasinae), "unicornfishes" from Guam. Marine Biology 139(4), 771-76.
3. Borden, W. C. (1998). Phylogeny of the unicornfishes (Naso, Acanthuridae) based on soft anatomy. Copeia 1998(1) 104-13.
4. Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2012). Species of Naso in FishBase. December 2012 version.