Spondyliosoma

Spondyliosoma is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Sparidae, which includes the seabreams and porgies. The genus contains two species, one, the black seabream, from the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the other, the steentjie seabream, from the western Indian Ocean.

==Taxonomy== Spondyliosoma was first proposed as a genus in 1849 by the Danish zoologist Theodore Cantor with Sparus cantharus being the type species. Cantor proposed the new name to replace Georges Cuvier's Cantharus which was preoccupied by Cantharus Röding, 1798 in Mollusca and by Cantharus Monfort, 1808 in Foraminifera. The type species of Cuvier's Cantharus was Sparus cantharus by monotypy, Linnaeus had described S. cantharus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae published in 1758, with its type locality given as the Mediterranean Sea. This genus in the family Sparidae within the order Spariformes by the 5th edition of Fishes of the World. Some authorities classify this genus in the subfamily Boopsinae, but the 5th edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise subfamilies within the Sparidae.