Tetrapturus Explained

Tetrapturus is a genus of marlins commonly called spearfish, found in tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world. Some are popular sport fish in big-game fishing.

Species

There are currently four recognized species in this genus:

• Tetrapturus angustirostris S. Tanaka (I), 1915 (Shortbill spearfish)
• Tetrapturus belone Rafinesque, 1810 (Mediterranean spearfish)
• Tetrapturus georgii R. T. Lowe, 1841 (Roundscale spearfish)
• Tetrapturus pfluegeri C. R. Robins & de Sylva, 1963 (Longbill spearfish)

Fossil relatives of spearfishes include Prototetrapturus from the Late Miocene of Algeria, and both Pizzikoskerma & Sicophasma from the late Miocene of Italy. All are placed in the clade Tetrapturomorpha.^{[1] [2]}

Notes and References

1. De Gracia . Carlos . Correa-Metrio . Alex . Carvalho . Mónica . Velez-Juarbe . Jorge . Přikryl . Tomáš . Jaramillo . Carlos . Kriwet . Jürgen . 2022-12-31 . Towards a unifying systematic scheme of fossil and living billfishes (Teleostei, Istiophoridae) . Journal of Systematic Palaeontology . en . 20 . 1 . 1–36 . 10.1080/14772019.2022.2091959 . 1477-2019.
2. De Gracia . Carlos . Villalobos-Segura . Eduardo . Ballen . Gustavo A. . Carnevale . Giorgio . Kriwet . Jürgen . July 2024 . Phylogenetic patterns in fossil and living billfishes (Istiophoriformes, Istiophoridae): evidence from the Central Mediterranean . Papers in Palaeontology . en . 10 . 4 . 10.1002/spp2.1559 . 2056-2799. free .