Smelt (fish)

Candles fish ( Thaleichthys pacificus )

The smelts ( Osmeridae (Size: osme = bad smell ) ) are a family of bony fish ( Osteichthyes ). Like many of her relatives (eg the salmon fish from the " neighboring" sub- cohort Protacanthopterygii ) they possess a distinctive dorsal fin. The best-known species, the European smelt ( Osmerus eperlanus ), lives of the Bay of Biscay to the Baltic Sea and is 30 inches long, it is an important food fish. Many species of smelts spread after catching a characteristic smell of cucumbers.

Features

Smelts are 6 to 70 cm long, most species remain below 20 cm. Your body is elongate, the color in most cases, silvery. Your palatine bone is dumbbell-shaped, the upper edge of the gill cover there is an indentation. A lateral line is present, but usually incomplete.

Fins formula: Dorsal 7-14, Anal 11-17 ( up to 23 at Mallotus ) Ventral 8 ( another short at Mallotus ).

The forked tail fin is supported by 19 main fin rays, 17 of which are branched. The number of Branchiostegalstrahlen is 6 to 10, the Pylorusschläuche at 0 to 11, with the vortex 51 to 78

Way of life

Most smelts live as a coastal fish of the sea on the northern hemisphere, with many species also form freshwater populations. To take the smelt spawn in large schools long walks along the coast or upstream into the rivers. After spawning often lead to a mass extinction of animals.

System

The Salangidae and Plecoglossidae that puts Nelson as subfamilies of the smelt, together are the sister group of the smelts.

Salangidae, Plecoglossidae

Hypomesus

Mallotus

Osmerus

Thaleichthys

Allosmerus

Spirinchus

The smelts are so far, as shown below, divided into two subfamilies with six genera and 14 species. Recent phylogenetic studies, however, do not seem to confirm the special position of the genus Hypomesus.

  • Subfamily Hypomesinae genus Hypomesus Hypomesus japonicus
  • Hypomesus nipponensis
  • Hypomesus olidus ( Pallas, 1811)
  • Hypomesus pretiosus
  • Hypomesus transpacificus
  • Tribus Osmerini genus Allosmerus Allosmerus elongatus
  • Capelin ( Mallotus villosus )
  • European smelt ( Osmerus eperlanus ) L. 1758
  • Arctic smelt ( Osmerus mordax )
  • Osmerus spectrum
  • Spirinchus lanceolatus
  • Spirinchus starksi
  • Spirinchus thaleichthys
  • Candles fish ( Thaleichthys pacificus )
Eulachon Teleostei Taxonomic rank#All ranks David Starr Jordan Fish fin Ayu Joseph S. Nelson Phylogenetics Digital Object Identifier FishBase
625536
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