The Neotropical silversides are a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
, Atherinopsidae, of
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...
es in the order
Atheriniformes
The Atheriniformes, also known as the silversides, are an order of ray-finned fishes that includes the Old World silversides and several less-familiar families, including the unusual Phallostethidae. The order includes at least 354 species. T ...
. About 112 species in 13 genera are distributed throughout the
tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
and
temperate
In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...
waters of the
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...
, including both marine and
freshwater habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
s. The familiar
grunion
Grunion are two fish species of the genus ''Leuresthes'': the California grunion, ''L. tenuis'', and the Gulf grunion, ''L. sardinas''. They are sardine-sized teleost fishes of the New World silverside family Atherinopsidae, found only off ...
s and
Atlantic silverside belong to this family.
References
*
External links
beryllina'' Photo and Information at MBL Aquaculture
Atherinopsidae
Taxa named by Henry Weed Fowler
{{Atheriniformes-stub