The Gempylidae are a family of
perciform
Perciformes (), also called the Percomorpha or Acanthopteri, is an order (biology), order or superorder of Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish. If considered a single order, they are the most numerous order of vertebrates, containing about 41% of a ...
fishes commonly known as snake mackerels or escolars. The family includes about 25 species.
They are elongated fishes with a similar appearance to
barracuda
A barracuda, or cuda for short, is a large, predatory, ray-finned fish known for its fearsome appearance and ferocious behaviour. The barracuda is a saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which was ...
s, having a long
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 ...
, usually with one or finlets trailing it. The largest species, including the
snoek (''
Thyrsites atun
''Thyrsites atun'' ( Euphrasén, 1791), the snoek, is a long, thin species of snake mackerel found in the seas of the Southern Hemisphere, and a popular food fish in South Africa, particularly along the west and southwest coast. This fish can ...
''), grow up to 2 m long, and the
oilfish
The oilfish (''Ruvettus pretiosus'') is a species of snake mackerel fish with a cosmopolitan distribution in tropical and temperate oceans. It can be found at depths of from , usually between . It can grow to a length of TL (nearly 10 feet) ...
(''Ruvettus pretiosus'') can reach 3 m, though they rarely surpass 150 cm. Like the barracudas, they are predators, with fang-like teeth.
They are deep-water
benthopelagic
The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer of ...
fishes, and several species are important commercial and game fishes.
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from: -65.5 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text:Paleocene
The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), E ...
from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text:Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...
from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text:Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Plio.
from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text:Pleist.
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H.
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from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:Paleogene
The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...
from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:Neogene
The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...
from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text: Q.
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color:oligocene bar:NAM1 from: -33.9 till: 0 text: Epinnula
color:oligocene bar:NAM2 from: -33.9 till: 0 text: Gempylus
color:oligocene bar:NAM3 from: -33.9 till: 0 text: Rexea
''Rexea'' is a genus of snake mackerels found in the Indian and Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, dependi ...
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The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), E ...
from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text:Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...
from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text:Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Plio.
from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text:Pleist.
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H.
bar:era
from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:Paleogene
The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...
from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:Neogene
The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...
from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text: Q.
See also
*
Euzaphlegidae, an extinct group of relatives from
Paleocene
The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), E ...
to Late
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
-aged marine strata of Europe, the
Caucasus Mountains
The Caucasus Mountains,
: pronounced
* hy, Կովկասյան լեռներ,
: pronounced
* az, Qafqaz dağları, pronounced
* rus, Кавка́зские го́ры, Kavkázskiye góry, kɐfˈkasːkʲɪje ˈɡorɨ
* tr, Kafkas Dağla ...
,
[Danilʹchenko, P. G. (1967). ''Bony fishes of the Maikop deposits of the Caucasus''.] India, Iran, Turkmenistan, Italy,
[Bannikov, Alexandre F. (2008). "A new genus and species of putative euzaphlegid fish from the Eocene of Bolca in norther Italy (Periformes, Trichiuroidea)." Studi e Ricerche sui giacimenti Terziari di Bolca, XII Miscellanea Paleontologica 9: 99-107]
/ref> and Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
.[David, Lore Rose (January 10, 1943). ''Miocene Fishes of Southern California''. Geological Society of America. pp. 104-115.]
References
External links
*
Scientia Marina - Population biology of the roudi escolar Promethichthys prometheus (Gempylidae) off the Canary Islands
{{Authority control
Ray-finned fish families