The Gadidae are a family of marine fish, included in the order
Gadiformes
Gadiformes are an order of ray-finned fish, also called the Anacanthini, that includes the cod. Many major food fish are in this order. They are found in marine waters throughout the world and the vast majority of the species are found in tempe ...
, known as the cods, codfishes, or true cods.
[ It contains several commercially important fishes, including the ]cod
Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...
, haddock
The haddock (''Melanogrammus aeglefinus'') is a saltwater ray-finned fish from the family Gadidae, the true cods. It is the only species in the monotypic genus ''Melanogrammus''. It is found in the North Atlantic Ocean and associated seas where ...
, whiting, and pollock
Pollock or pollack (pronounced ) is the common name used for either of the two species of North Atlantic marine fish in the genus ''Pollachius''. ''Pollachius pollachius'' is referred to as pollock in North America, Ireland and the United Kingd ...
.
Most gadid species are found in temperate waters of the Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...
, but several range into subtropical, subarctic
The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of humid continental regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Scandinavia, Siberia, and the Cairngorms. Generally, ...
, and Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
oceans, and a single (southern blue whiting
The southern blue whiting (''Micromesistius australis'') is a codfish of the genus '' Micromesistius'', found in the southern oceans with temperatures between 3 and 7 °C, at depths of 50 to 900 m. Its length is commonly between 30 and 60&nb ...
) is found in the Southern Hemisphere. They are generally medium-sized fish, and are distinguished by the presence of three dorsal fin
A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...
s on the back and two anal fin
Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...
s on the underside. Most species have barbel Barbel may refer to:
*Barbel (anatomy), a whisker-like organ near the mouth found in some fish (notably catfish, loaches and cyprinids) and turtles
*Barbel (fish), a common name for certain species of fish
**''Barbus barbus'', a species of cyprinid ...
s on their chins, which they use while browsing on the sea floor. Gadids are carnivorous, feeding on smaller fish and crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
s.
Gadids are highly prolific, producing several million eggs at each spawning. This contributes to their high population numbers, which, in turn, makes commercial fishing
Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...
relatively easy.
Concepts differ about the contents of the family Gadidae. The system followed by FishBase
FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web. includes a dozen genera.[ Alternatively, fishes in the current ]Lotidae
The Lotidae are a family of cod-like fishes commonly known as lings or rocklings. They are found in the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans. Except for a few species of ''Gaidropsarus'', all are restricted to the Northern Hemisphere. All specie ...
(with burbot
The burbot (''Lota lota'') is the only gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish
Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments di ...
, cusk) and Phycidae
The Phycidae are a family of hakes in the order Gadiformes. They are native to the Atlantic Ocean, but the juveniles of some species enter estuaries.
Sometimes this family is classified as the subfamily Phycinae of the cod family, Gadidae
Th ...
(hakes) have also been included in the Gadidae, as its subfamilies Lotinae and Phycinae.[Nelson, J. S. 2006. ]Fishes of the World
''Fishes of the World'' by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011) is a standard reference for fish systematics. Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of the diversity and classification of the ...
, 4th edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
See also
* Diseases and parasites in cod
References
External links
*
*
Extant Oligocene first appearances
Marine fish families
Taxa named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque
{{gadiformes-stub