''Chelon'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
of
mullets found in coastal marine waters,
estuaries
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environme ...
and rivers in the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...
and
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...
.
Anatomy
''Chelon'' possesses the elongated body and dorsal fins typical of the order
Mugiliformes
The mullets or grey mullets are a family (Mugilidae) of ray-finned fish found worldwide in coastal temperate and tropical waters, and some species in fresh water. Mullets have served as an important source of food in Mediterranean Europe since R ...
, with frontal fins defined by four spines and anal fins with soft rays. The maximum sizes described vary between 15 cm for the
Cape Verde mullet and 32 cm for the
thicklip grey mullet.
Habitat
They are
catadromous
Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousan ...
fishes, meaning that they can be found in lagoons and rivers as well as the sea during the reproductive season, fundamentally feeding on
algae
Algae ( , ; : alga ) are any of a large and diverse group of photosynthetic, eukaryotic organisms. The name is an informal term for a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from ...
and
diatoms
A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group comprising sev ...
.
Taxonomy
Recent cladistic analysis recovered ''Chelon'' as paraphyletic with respect to ''Liza'', so some species of ''Liza'' were reassigned to ''Chelon'' and ''Liza'' synonymized with ''Chelon''.
[Durand, J.-D., W.-J. Chen, K.-N. Shen, C. Fu, & P. Borsa. 2012. Genus-level taxonomic changes implied b mitochondrial phylogeny of grey mullets (Teleostei: Mugilidae). Comptes Rendus Biologies, 335: 687-697.]
Species
The following species are classified in the genus ''Chelon'':
* ''
Chelon aurata''
( A. Risso, 1810) (Golden grey mullet)
* ''
Chelon bandialensis''
Diouf, 1991 (Diassanga mullet)
* ''
Chelon bispinosus''
( S. Bowdich, 1825) (Cape Verde mullet)
* ''
Chelon dumerili''
(Steindachner
Franz Steindachner (11 November 1834 in Vienna – 10 December 1919 in Vienna) was an Austrian zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. He published over 200 papers on fishes and over 50 papers on reptiles and amphibians. Steindachner describ ...
, 1870) (Grooved mullet)
* ''
Chelon labrosus''
( A. Risso, 1827) (Thicklip grey mullet)
* ''
Chelon parsia''
(Hamilton, 1822) (Goldspot mullet)
* ''
Chelon ramada''
( A. Risso, 1827) (Thinlip grey mullet)
* ''
Chelon richardsonii''
( A. Smith, 1846) (South African mullet)
* ''
Chelon saliens''
( A. Risso, 1810) (Leaping mullet)
* ''
Chelon tricuspidens''
( J. L. B. Smith, 1935) (Striped mullet)
See also
*''
Planiliza''
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q660637
Mugilidae
Taxa named by Peter Artedi
Marine fish genera