Gymnocanthus is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Cottidae, the typical sculpins.
Gymnocanthus was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1839 by the English zoologist William Swainson with Cottus ventralis, which had been described in 1829 by the French zoologist Georges Cuvier from Kamchatka, as its only species.
[2]The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies this genus within the subfamily Cottinae of the family Cottidae,[3] however, other authors classify the genus within the subfamily Icelinae of the family Psychrolutidae.
It may refer to the head of the type species, which was described as scaleless, although it is actually covered or partially covered with large plates, and which has "few" spines, or it may be a reference to the scaleless preopercular spine and cusps.
[4] Gymnocanthus has seven recognized species in this genus, of these five are native to the northern Pacific Ocean, whereas one lives in arctic waters adjacent to the Atlantic, and one in the central Atlantic:[5]