Zootaxa 2525: 19–50 (2010) ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ Article ZOOTAXA Copyright © 2010 · Magnolia Press ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) Marine fish diversity: history of knowledge and discovery (Pisces) WILLIAM N. ESCHMEYER1, 5, RONALD FRICKE2, JON D. FONG3 & DENNIS A. POLACK4 1Curator emeritus, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, U.S.A. 94118 and Research Associate, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida, U.S.A. 32611. E-mail:
[email protected] 2Ichthyology, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Rosenstein 1, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany. E-mail:
[email protected] 3California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, U.S.A. 94118. E-mail:
[email protected] 4P.O. Box 518, Halfway House 1685, South Africa. E-mail:
[email protected] 5Corresponding Author. E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract The increase in knowledge of marine fish biodiversity over the last 250 years is assessed. The Catalog of Fishes database (http://research.calacademy.org/ichthyology/catalog) on which this study is based, has been maintained for 25 years and includes information on more than 50,000 available species names of fishes, with more than 31,000 of them currently regarded as valid species. New marine species are being described at a rate of about 100–150 per year, with freshwater numbers slightly higher. In addition, over 10,000 generic names are available ones of which 3,118 are deemed valid for marine fishes (as of Feb. 19, 2010). This report concentrates on fishes with at least some stage of their life cycle in the sea. The number of valid marine species, about 16,764 (Feb.