''Alosa macedonica'', or the Macedonian shad (also known as ''liparia''), is a

landlocked A landlocked country is a country that does not have territory connected to an ocean or whose coastlines lie on endorheic basins. There are currently 44 landlocked countries and 4 landlocked de facto states. Kazakhstan is the world's largest ...

species of

clupeid Clupeidae is a family of ray-finned fishes, comprising, for instance, the herrings, shads, sardines, hilsa, and menhadens. The clupeoids include many of the most important food fishes in the world, and are also commonly caught for production of f ...

fish

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. Its single natural occurrence is the freshwater Lake Volvi in northern Greece. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

Biology

''Alosa macedonica'' is a member of the genus ''

Alosa ''Alosa'' is a genus of fish, the river herrings, in the family (biology), family Clupeidae. Along with other genera in the subfamily Alosinae, they are generally known as shads.[ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/ac482e/ac482e27.pdf Subfamily A ...

'', whose other species are often anadromous migrating between marine and freshwater. Research suggests that the ancestors of ''Alosa macedonica'' inhabited marine regions of the Aegean Sea. ''Alosa macedonica'' have teeth in the Palatine bone, palatine and vomer. They have approximately 50 vertebrae and 106-128 gill rakers. They are about 181-230mm in length and

spawn Spawn or spawning may refer to: * Spawn (biology), the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals Arts, entertainment, and media * Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise ** '' Spawn: Ar ...

around the months of July and August. Apart from Lake Volvi, the species was previously present in Lake Koronia but in 1995 the lake dried up killing all the fish.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q304425 macedonica Endemic fauna of Greece Freshwater fish of Europe Vulnerable fish Vulnerable biota of Europe Fish described in 1921 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot