Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 14, 2026

Butidae

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. 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.

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Jun 14, 2026
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Butidae
Temporal range:
Butis butis
Ophiocara porocephala
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Gobiiformes
Suborder: Gobioidei
Family: Butidae
Bleeker, 18741

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.45

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 affinities6, 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

Genera

The following genera are classified within the family Butidae:8

The following fossil genera are also known:

References

References

  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. 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. 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. Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Butidae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 27 January 2026.
  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.