The leerfish or garrick (''Lichia amia'') is a species of marine

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

in the family

Carangidae The Carangidae are a family of ray-finned fish that includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, runners, trevallies, and scads. It is the largest of the six families included within the order Carangiformes. Some authorities classify it as the ...

. It is the only extant member of the genus ''Lichia''. It is native to much of the eastern

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, from the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and western

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

, north to France, and south along the coastal waters of western

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, reaching as far south as eastern

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

.Van Der Elst, R. (1993). ''A Guide to the Common Sea Fishes of Southern Africa''. Struik Publishers. . They are an important species in coastal recreational fisheries, especially in Africa. These fish can reach 1.5 m in length and more than 30 kg in weight. They inhabit the coastal wave zone where they form small shoals to hunt other smaller fish, favouring mullets. In South Africa, they primarily breed in estuaries and move to marine environments after maturation. Phylogenetic evidence suggests that a deep genetic divergence exists between leerfish populations in South Africa and Angola, likely divided by the

Benguela Current The Benguela Current is the broad, northward flowing ocean current that forms the eastern portion of the South Atlantic Ocean gyre. The current extends from roughly Cape Point in the south, to the position of the Angola-Benguela Front in the no ...

. It has thus been recommended that these populations be managed as two independent stocks.

An extinct relative, '' Lichia veronensis'' Bannikov, 1990, is known from the

Early Eocene In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age (geology), age or lowest stage (stratigraphy), stratigraphic stage of the Eocene. It spans the time between , is preceded by the Thanetian Age (part of the Paleocene) and is followed by th ...

-aged

Monte Bolca Monte Bolca is an Ypresian, Early Eocene-aged geologic site located near Verona, Italy, Verona, Italy. A ''Konservat-Lagerstätte'', it contains an extremely well-preserved and diverse marine biota, including the most diverse fish fauna of any Ce ...

site of Italy, suggesting that the genus has inhabited its present range for nearly 50 million years. Another extinct species, '' Lichia alta'' Gorjanovic-Kramberger, 1891, is known from the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

of Slovenia. Fossil ''Lichia'' remains tentatively assigned to the extant ''L. amia'' are known from the

late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...

(

Messinian The Messinian is in the geologic timescale the last age or uppermost stage of the Miocene. It spans the time between 7.246 ± 0.005 Ma and 5.333 ± 0.005 Ma (million years ago). It follows the Tortonian and is followed by the Zanclean, the fir ...

) of Italy, in the midst of the

Messinian Salinity Crisis In the Messinian salinity crisis (also referred to as the Messinian event, and in its latest stage as the Lago Mare event) the Mediterranean Sea went into a cycle of partial or nearly complete desiccation (drying-up) throughout the latter part of ...

. This suggests that the extant ''L. amia'' must have diverged from its extinct relatives prior to this point, and that pockets of ocean likely persisted in the Mediterranean during this period of time.

References

Trachinotinae Fauna of Portugal Fish of South Africa Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Marine fish of West Africa Marine fish of Southern Africa Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Carangiformes-stub Extant Ypresian first appearances