Tetrapturus
Genus of fishes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tetrapturus is a genus of marlins commonly called spearfish or spearchucker fish in Eastern Europe, found in tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world. Some are popular sport fish in big-game fishing.
| Tetrapturus | |
|---|---|
| |
| Mediterranean spearfish (T. belone) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Carangiformes |
| Family: | Istiophoridae |
| Genus: | Tetrapturus Rafinesque, 1810 |
| Type species | |
| Tetrapturus belone Rafinesque, 1810 | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Species
There are currently four recognized species in this genus:[1]
- 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.[2][3]
