Wolf herring
Genus of fishes
Wolf herrings Temporal range: 55–0 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N Eocene to Present[1] | |
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Dorab wolf-herring | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Clupeiformes |
Family: | Chirocentridae Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1846 |
Genus: | Chirocentrus Cuvier, 1816 |
Species | |
See text |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/Dorab_wolf-herring.png/220px-Dorab_wolf-herring.png)
The wolf herrings are a family (Chirocentridae) of two marine species of ray-finned fish related to the herrings.
Both species have elongated bodies and jaws with long sharp teeth that facilitate their ravenous appetites, mostly for other fish.[2] Both species reach a length of 1 m. They have silvery sides and bluish backs.
They are commercially fished, and marketed fresh or frozen.
Species
- Chirocentrus dorab (Forsskål, 1775) - Dorab wolf-herring, found in warm coastal waters from the Red Sea to Japan and Australia
- Chirocentrus nudus Swainson, 1839 - whitefin wolf-herring, found in a similar range (This species is difficult to distinguish from C. dorab; the former has a black mark on its dorsal fin. This species is also known to eat crabs in addition to its usual diet of smaller fish.)
References
- Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2011). "Chirocentridae" in FishBase. June 2011 version.
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