Rhynchodoras: From the Greek rhynchos, meaning nose, and doras, meaning
skin (also a word commonly used in forming generic names for doradids);
in refeence to the unusual snout morphology.
This species was considered extremely rare as late as 1992; at this time only 3 specimens were known from museum collections (the types of the two known species).> The ichthyological discovery of Rhynchodoras actually dates back 150 years and is attributable to the British naturalist-explorer Alfred R. Wallace. From 1850-1852 Wallace traveled up the Río Negro in search of its headwaters and those of the Río Orinoco. During this expedition Wallace took notes on and prepared detailed drawings of the fishes collected. Although his collections were lost at sea, many of his notes and illustrations survived and are currently at the British Museum of Natural History. Notes that accompany Wallace's illustration of a species of Rhinodoras (originally labeled ''Doras'' and numbered 175) include the following comments (transcribed by M. Toledo-Piza Ragazzo): ''In a small specimen very closely resembling this [illustration of Rhinodoras] in all other particulars - the head is higher towards the snout which turns down and is produced in a sort of proboscis which is received in a ___ of ___ formed by the produced lower lip - the teeth are similar but are also continued in a row round the margin of each lip - perhaps this is the male - the above [Rhinodoras] being the female.'' This description was certainly based on a specimen of Rhynchodoras, the only doradid genus in which the snout ends in a vertically-oriented bill or ''proboscis'' formed by the upper and lower jaws.
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