Mormyrus

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Mormyrus
Mormyrus.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Osteoglossiformes
Family: Mormyridae
Subfamily: Mormyrinae
Genus: Mormyrus
Linnaeus, 1758
Species

See text

Synonyms
  • MormyrodesGill 1862
  • Mormyrus (Scrophicephalus) Swainson 1838
  • Scrophicephalus(Swainson 1838)
  • SolenomormyrusBleeker 1874

Mormyrus is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Mormyridae. They are weakly electric, enabling them to navigate, to find their prey, and to communicate with other electric fish. [1]

Contents

Species

Mormyrus caballus (above), Mormyrus rume (below) Materiaux pour la faune du Congo (6299123534).jpg
Mormyrus caballus (above), Mormyrus rume (below)
Mormyrus hasselquistii (above), Mormyrus niloticus (below) The fishes of the Nile (Pl. XI) (6961605933).jpg
Mormyrus hasselquistii (above), Mormyrus niloticus (below)

There are currently 22 recognized species in this genus: [2] [3]

In culture

This section is an excerpt from Mormyridae § In culture.[ edit ]
Bronze figurine of Oxyrhynchus fish, Late Period-Ptolemaic Egypt Oxyrhynchus fish Late Period-Ptolemaic (cropped).jpg
Bronze figurine of Oxyrhynchus fish, Late Period-Ptolemaic Egypt
The Medjed was a sacred fish in Ancient Egypt. At the city of Per-Medjed, better known as Oxyrhynchus, whose name means "sharp-nosed" after the fish, archaeologists have found fishes depicted as bronze figurines, mural paintings, or wooden coffins in the shape of fishes with downturned snouts, with horned sun-disc crowns like those of the goddess Hathor. The depictions have been described as resembling members of the genus Mormyrus. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mormyridae</span> Family of fishes

The Mormyridae, sometimes called "elephantfish", are a superfamily of weakly electric fish in the order Osteoglossiformes native to Africa. It is by far the largest family in the order, with around 200 species. Members of the family can be popular, if challenging, aquarium species. These fish have a large brain size and unusually high intelligence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peters's elephantnose fish</span> Species of fish

Peters's elephant-nose fish is an African freshwater elephantfish in the genus Gnathonemus. Other names in English include elephantnose fish, long-nosed elephant fish, and Ubangi mormyrid, after the Ubangi River. The Latin name petersii is probably for the German naturalist Wilhelm Peters. The fish uses electrolocation to find prey, and has the largest brain-to-body oxygen use ratio of all known vertebrates.

<i>Labeo</i> Genus of fishes

Labeo is a genus of carps in the family Cyprinidae. They are found in freshwater habitats in the tropics and subtropics of Africa and Asia.

<i>Brycinus</i> Genus of fishes

Brycinus is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Alestiidae. Like other "African characids", they were formerly included in the Characidae but are actually somewhat more distantly related Characiformes.

<i>Distichodus</i> Genus of fishes

Distichodus is a genus of freshwater fish in the family Distichodontidae found in Africa.

<i>Marcusenius</i> Genus of ray-finned fishes

Marcusenius is a genus of the elephantfish group native to Africa. Its members are highly diverse in size, with the smallest species reaching less than 15 cm (6 in) and the largest more than 1 m (3.3 ft).

<i>Pollimyrus</i> Genus of ray-finned fishes

Pollimyrus is a genus of elephantfishes native to Africa.

<i>Mormyrops</i> Genus of ray-finned fishes

Mormyrops is a genus of weakly electric fish in the family Mormyridae from freshwater in Africa. They are characterized by an elongate head measuring twice as long as high, and no teeth on the palate or the tongue. The genus includes the largest member of the mormyrid family, the cornish jack at up to 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in length.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mormyrinae</span> Subfamily of fishes

The subfamily Mormyrinae contains all but one of the genera of the African freshwater fish family Mormyridae in the order Osteoglossiformes. They are often called elephantfish due to a long protrusion below their mouths used to detect buried invertebrates that is suggestive of a tusk or trunk. They can also be called tapirfish.

<i>Campylomormyrus</i> Genus of ray-finned fishes

Campylomormyrus is a genus of elephantfish in the family Mormyridae.

<i>Cyphomyrus</i> Genus of ray-finned fishes

Cyphomyrus is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Mormyridae, the freshwater elephantfishes.

<i>Myomyrus</i> Genus of ray-finned fishes

Myomyrus is a genus of elephantfish in the family Mormyridae. Its members reach about 25–30 cm (10–12 in) in length and are restricted to the Congo River Basin in Africa.

Oxymormyrus is a small genus of elephantfish in the family Mormyridae. Its members reach about 25–27 cm (10–11 in) in length and are restricted to the Congo, Campo, Kouilou-Niari, Nyanga and Ogowe river basins in Middle Africa.

<i>Petrocephalus</i> Genus of ray-finned fishes

Petrocephalus is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Mormyridae. All the fish species of this genus are endemic to Africa.

<i>Stomatorhinus</i> Genus of ray-finned fishes

Stomatorhinus is a genus of small elephantfish in the family Mormyridae.

Mormyrus longirostris, commonly referred as the eastern bottle-nosed mormyrid, is a medium-sized ray-finned fish species belonging to the family Mormyridae. It was originally described by Wilhelm Peters in Monatsberichte der Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1852.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medjed (fish)</span> Species of fish

Medjed were a kind of elephantfish worshipped at Oxyrhynchus (Ὀξύρρυγχος) in ancient Egyptian religion.

<i>Enteromius</i> Genus of cyprinid fishes

Enteromius is a genus of small to medium-sized cyprinid fish native to tropical Africa. Most species were placed in the genus Barbus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mormyroidea</span>

The Mormyroidea are a superfamily of fresh water fishes endemic to Africa that, together with the families Hiodontidae, Osteoglossidae, Pantodontidae and Notopteridae, represents one of the main groups of living Osteoglossiformes. They stand out for their use of weak electric fields, which they use to orient themselves, reproduce, feed, and communicate.

<i>Mormyrus rume</i> Species of fish

Mormyrus rume is a species of electric fish in the family Mormyridae, found in the basins of the Gambia, Senegal, Niger, Volta, Chad, Bandama, Sassandra, Komoé, Mono, Ouémé, Ogun and Culufi rivers, among others.

References

  1. ↑ Bullock, Theodore H.; Bodznick, D. A.; Northcutt, R. G. (1983). "The phylogenetic distribution of electroreception: Evidence for convergent evolution of a primitive vertebrate sense modality" (PDF). Brain Research Reviews . 6 (1): 25–46. doi:10.1016/0165-0173(83)90003-6. hdl: 2027.42/25137 . PMID   6616267. S2CID   15603518.
  2. ↑ "Mormyridae" (PDF). Deeplyfish- fishes of the world. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  3. ↑ Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2017). Species of Mormyrus in FishBase . June 2017 version.
  4. ↑ Van Neer, Wim; Gonzalez, Jérôme (2019). "A Late Period fish deposit at Oxyrhynchus (el-Bahnasa, Egypt)". In Peters, Joris; McGlynn, George; Goebel, Veronika (eds.). Documenta Archaeobiologiae Animals: Cultural Identifiers In Ancient Societies? (PDF). Rahden, Westfalia, Germany: Verlag Marie Leidorf. ISBN   978-3-89646-674-7.


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