Tylosurus Explained

Tylosurus is a genus of needlefish, one of ten in the family Belonidae. They are found worldwide in tropical and warmer temperate seas^[1] and two species have been recorded as Lessepsian migrants in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.^[2]

Species

The seven currently recognized species in this genus are:

• Tylosurus acus (Lacepède, 1803)
  • T. a. acus (Lacépède, 1803) (Agujon needlefish)
  • T. a. imperialis (Rafinesque, 1810)
  • T. a. melanotus (Bleeker, 1850) (keel-jawed needlefish)
  • T. a. rafale Collette & Parin, 1970 (Atlantic agujon needlefish)
• Tylosurus choram (Rüppell, 1837) (Red Sea houndfish)
• Tylosurus crocodilus (Péron & Lesueur, 1821) (Houndfish)
• Tylosurus fodiator D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1882 (Mexican needlefish)
• Tylosurus gavialoides (Castelnau, 1873) (Stout long tom)
• Tylosurus pacificus (Steindachner, 1876) (Pacific agujon needlefish)
• Tylosurus punctulatus (Günther, 1872) (Spotted long tom)

Etymology

The generic name Tylosurus is a compound created from the Greek words tylos meaning a "callus" and oura meaning "tail", this refers to the keel like structures on the caudal peduncle of these fish.^[3]

Notes and References

1. Book: Bruce Baden Collette . Bruce Baden Collette . 2003 . Family Belonidae Bonaparte 1832 needlefishes . Annotated Checklist of Fishes . 16 . California Academy of Sciences . 1545-150X.
2. Barbara Zorica . Vanja Čikeš Keč . Armin Palloro . Kristijan Zanki . Goran Brzulja . Viktor Kraljević . 3 . 2016 . First record of agujon needlefish, Tylosurus acus imperialis (Rafinesque, 1810) (Osteichthyes: Belonidae) in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea . Acta Adriatica . 57 . 1 . 183–186.
3. Web site: Order BELONIFORMES (Needlefishes) . The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database . Christopher Scharpf . Kenneth J. Lazara . 15 June 2019 . 3 August 2019 . Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara.