aculeatus, Gasterosteus Linnaeus [C.] 1758:295 [Systema Naturae, Ed. X v. 1; ref. 2787] Europe. Syntypes: Zool. Soc. Lond. 29 (left half-skin), 30-31 (2, right half-skins). •Valid as Gasterosteus aculeatus Linnaeus 1758, subspecies aculeatus -- (Okada 1961:605 [ref. 6363], Kawanabe & Mizuno 1989:433 [ref. 25598], Pietsch et al. 2001:144 [ref. 25688], Moyle 2002:340 [ref. 26449], Scharpf 2007:34 [ref. 30398]). •Valid as Gasterosteus aculeatus Linnaeus 1758 -- (Herrera 1896:38 [ref. 39336], Berg 1949:972 [ref. 20662], Monod 1973:280 [ref. 7193], Lee et al. 1980:563 [ref. 22416], Eschmeyer & Herald 1983:128 [ref. 9277], Ida in Masuda et al. 1984:83 [ref. 6441], Smith 1986:276 [ref. 22186], Banister in Whitehead et al. 1986:640 [ref. 13676], Arnoult 1986:280 [ref. 6213], Robins & Ray 1986:122 [ref. 23100], Lelek 1987:267 [ref. 22962], McAllister 1990:217 [ref. 14674], Page & Burr 1991:243 [ref. 18983], Haglund et al. 1992 [ref. 19890], Espinosa Pérez et al. 1993:62 [ref. 22290], Swift et al. 1993:123 [ref. 22379], Jenkins & Burkhead 1994:623 [ref. 21581], Poll & Gosse 1995:109 [ref. 24781], Coad 1995:26 [ref. 23608], Zhu 1995:165 [ref. 25213], Mrakovcic et al. 1995:185 [ref. 23079], Chereshnev 1996:605 [ref. 24659], Coad 1996:85 [ref. 25304], Bianco et al. 1996:56 [ref. 26724], Cheng & Zhou 1997:233 [ref. 26385], Kottelat 1997:164 [ref. 22952], Murdy et al. 1997:135 [ref. 23144], Kim 1997:386 [ref. 24032], Nikiforov et al. 1997:330 [ref. 24694], Reshetnikov et al. 1997:747 [ref. 24702], Bianco 1997:620 [ref. 26725], Reshetnikov & Savvaitove 1998:111 [ref. 23593], Caldecutt & Adams 1998:827 [ref. 23613], Ahnelt et al. 1998:395 [ref. 23708], Scott & Crossman 1998:665 [ref. 24570], Sokolovskaya et al. 1998:9 [ref. 24670], Castro-Aguirre et al. 1999:226 [ref. 24550], Fuller et al. 1999:334 [ref. 25838], Lyons et al. 2000:51 [ref. 26594], Nakabo 2000:513 [ref. 25086], Sheiko & Fedorov 2000:25 [ref. 25650], Bogutskaya et al. 2001:46 [ref. 26178], Caldecutt et al. 2001:936 [ref. 25815], Chereshnev et al. 2001:112 [ref. 26736], Zemnukhov et al. 2001:420 [ref. 25412], Bilecenoğlu et al. 2002:64 [ref. 26753], Kim & Park 2002:308 [ref. 25913], Krueger in Collette & Klein-MacPhee 2002:314 [ref. 26158], Mecklenburg et al. 2002:333 [ref. 25968], Nakabo 2002:513 [ref. 26001], Paepke in Bănărescu & Paepke 2002:209 [ref. 25856], Roe et al. 2002:903 [ref. 26504], Choi et al. 2003:231, 552 [ref. 26218], Pichugin et al. 2003:169 [ref. 26890], Hagiwara 2003:37 [ref. 27188], Fedorov et al. 2003:57 [ref. 27579], Jang et al. 2003:120 [ref. 27681], Wydoski & Whitney 2003:167 [ref. 27816], Hanel 2003:61 [ref. 27894], Alekseyev et al. 2004:54 [ref. 27625], Bailey et al. 2004:168 [ref. 27882], Nelson et al. 2004:111 [ref. 27807], Bogutskaya & Naseka 2004:180 [ref. 28183], Love et al. 2005:71 [ref. 37547], Vassilev & Pehlivanov 2005:175 [ref. 28369], Miller 2006:320 [ref. 28615], Hanel & Lusk 2005:334 [ref. 28804], Fricke 2007:28 [ref. 30577], Fricke et al. 2007:73 [ref. 29533], Kottelat & Freyhof 2007:492 [ref. 29996], Vasil'eva 2007:70 [ref. 30517], McPhail 2007:432 [ref. 31199], Ninua & Japoshvili 2008:169 [ref. 31251], Kuiter 2009:322 [ref. 30404], Esmaeili et al. 2010:375 [ref. 33391], Lipej & Dulčić 2010:36 [ref. 36649], Møller et al. 2010:50 [ref. 31169], Mecklenburg et al. 2011:121 [ref. 31212], Page & Burr 2011:464 [ref. 31215], Page et al. 2013:113 [ref. 32708], Bianco 2013:9 [ref. 32897], Parin et al. 2014:203 [ref. 33547], Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. 2015:895 [ref. 34062], Pietsch & Orr 2015:29 [ref. 34694], Çiçek et al. 2015:151 [ref. 35151], Denys et al. 2015:41 [ref. 35420], Afonso et al. 2016:39, 155 [ref. 36199], Kells et al. 2016:122 [ref. 35888], Zhang et al. 2016:192 [ref. 34477], Dyldin & Orlov 2017:56 [ref. 35138], Esmaeili et al. 2017:95 [ref. 35254], Saygun et al. 2017:187 [ref. 38891], Esmaeili et al. 2018:77 [ref. 36089], Artüz & Fricke 2019:555 [ref. 36612], Burton & Lea 2019:56 [ref. 37205], Ćaleta et al. 2019:190 [ref. 37026], Carneiro et al. 2019:297 [ref. 37250], Lorenzoni et al. 2019:252 [ref. 37108], Özuluğ & Saç 2019:27 [ref. 36599], Ahnelt et al. 2020:105 [ref. 39966], Çiçek et al. 2020:259 [ref. 37644], Dyldin et al. 2020:85 [ref. 37569], Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. 2020:284 [ref. 37983], Kim et al. 2020:85 [ref. 39118], Kovačić et al. 2020:37 [ref. 37519], Kuljanishvili et al. 2020:[5] [ref. 37535], Abliazov et al. 2021:11 [ref. 38576], Bañón & Maño 2021:65 [ref. 38883], Dyldin et al. 2021:58 [ref. 38804], Love et al. 2021:102 [ref. 39279], Denys et al. 2022:396 [ref. 40085], Dyldin & Orlov 2022:35 [ref. 38972], Niță et al. 2022:48 [ref. 40471], Simian et al. 2022:375 [ref. 40776], Çiçek et al. 2023:450 [ref. 40625], Mousavi-Sabet et al. 2023:35 [ref. 40667], Saad et al. 2023:47 [ref. 40501], Shumka et al. 2023:38 [ref. 40747], Çiçek et al. 2024:375 [ref. 40789]). Current status: Valid as Gasterosteus aculeatus Linnaeus 1758. Gasterosteidae. Distribution: North Pacific; Atlantic; Baltic Sea; North Sea; Mediterranean Sea; Sea of Marmara; Black Sea and adjacent watersheds; Sea of Japan; widespread in northern Europe, northern Asia and North America. Introduced in Caspian Sea region. Habitat: freshwater, brackish, marine.