Squaretail

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Squaretails
Tetragonurus cuvieri (smalleye squaretail).gif
Smalleye squaretail, Tetragonurus cuvieri

Drawing by Dr Tony Ayling

Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Scombriformes
Suborder: Stromateoidei
Family: Tetragonuridae
Genus: Tetragonurus
Risso, 1810
Type species
Tetragonurus cuvieri
Risso, 1810
Species

See text.

Synonyms

Ctenodax Macleay, 1886

The squaretails are a genus, Tetragonurus, of perciform fishes, the only genus in the family Tetragonuridae.

Contents

They are found in tropical and subtropical oceans, and feed on jellyfish and ctenophores.

Jellyfish soft-bodied, aquatic invertebrates

Jellyfish or sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella-shaped bells and trailing tentacles, although a few are not mobile, being anchored to the seabed by stalks. The bell can pulsate to provide propulsion and highly efficient locomotion. The tentacles are armed with stinging cells and may be used to capture prey and defend against predators. Jellyfish have a complex life cycle; the medusa is normally the sexual phase, the planula larva can disperse widely and is followed by a sedentary polyp phase.

Species

The three species are:

The bigeye squaretail, Tetragonurus atlanticus, is a marine fish native to the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. They feed on soft-bodied medusae and salps and will also eat plankton. Their average length is 50 cm, and their habitat is pelagic. They are poisonous to eat.

Smalleye squaretail species of fish

The smalleye squaretail, Tetragonurus cuvieri, is a squaretail of the genus Tetragonurus found in all tropical and temperate oceans of the world, at depths up to 800 m. Its length is 20 to 70 cm.

Antoine Risso Niçard naturalist

Giuseppe Antonio Risso, called Antoine Risso, was a Niçard naturalist.

Timeline

QuaternaryNeogenePaleogeneHolocenePleist.Plio.MioceneOligoceneEocenePaleoceneTetragonurusQuaternaryNeogenePaleogeneHolocenePleist.Plio.MioceneOligoceneEocenePaleoceneSquaretail

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References

FishBase is a global species database of fish species. It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web. Over time it has "evolved into a dynamic and versatile ecological tool" that is widely cited in scholarly publications.