Atherina
| Atherina | ||||||||||||
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Atherina boyeri |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Atherina | ||||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
Atherina or sand smelt are a species of Old World earfish that can be found in schools in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
features
The fish of the genus Atherina have an elongated, slender body with a clearly visible side band. The eye is about as big as the mouth is long. The largest species are up to 20 centimeters long.
Occurrence and way of life
Sand smelt can be found in the Atlantic from South Africa to the Kattegat, as well as in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Caspian Sea . As schooling fish, they inhabit the area near the coast and the shallow water zone (epipelagial) of offshore islands, in the Mediterranean often lagoons and estuaries of rivers ( brackish water ) near the sea . They feed on plankton organisms , small crustaceans and fish larvae.
The breeding season of the fish ranges from spring to summer in the colder regions.
Fossils
There is a relatively large amount of fossil evidence of atherina from fossilized skeletons. Fossils from the Messinian (about 7 to 5 million years old) were found, which are assigned to the species Atherina boyeri living today . Another eight fossil species come from the Miocene (around 23 to 5 million years old). They lived in the (Paleo) Mediterranean and the Paratethys , a geological marginal sea of Eurasia with changing salt contents.
Systematics
There are five recent species in the genus:
- Atherina boyeri Risso , 1810 from the Eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas
- Atherina breviceps Valenciennes , 1835 from the seas of southern Africa
- Atherina hepsetus Linnaeus , 1758 ( type species ) from the Eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black Seas
- Atherina lopeziana Rossignol & Blache , 1961 from the East Atlantic
- Atherina presbyter Cuvier , 1829 from the East Atlantic and the Mediterranean
Fossil species that are also included in the genus Atherina :
- Atherina atropatiensis Carnevale , Abbasi , Alimohammadian & Reichenbacher , 2011 from the Tabriz Basin
- Atherina cavalloi Gaudant , 1979 from the Paleo-Mediterranean
- Atherina impropria Switshenskaya , 1973 Eastern Paratethys
- Atherina prima Svitshenskaya , 1959 eastern Paratethys
- Atherina sarmatica Gorjanovic − Kramberger , 1891 central Paratethys
- Atherina suchovi Switshenskaya , 1973 Eastern Paratethys
- Atherina sumgaitica Switshenskaja , 1973 Eastern Paratethys
- Atherina schelkovnikovi Bogachev , 1936 Eastern Paratethys
Economical meaning
These small ear fish are caught en masse and processed in different ways: into fish meal, dried as dog and cat food, or as fishing bait. In the Mediterranean area, sand inks are also eaten fried.
Web links
- Atherina on FishBase (English)
swell
- Harro Hieronimus: Rainbow Fish and Kindred Families . Aqualog, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2002, ISBN 3-931702-80-4 , p. 9-10 .
- G. Carnevale, E. Haghfarshi, S. Abbasi, H. Alimohammadian, B. Reichenbacher: A New Species of Silverside from the Late Miocene of NW Iran . In: Acta Palaeontologica Polonica . tape 56 , no. 4 , 2011, p. 749-756 , doi : 10.4202 / app.2011.0003 .