Jack mackerels or saurels are marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

in the genus ''Trachurus'' of the family Carangidae. The name of the genus derives from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

words ''trachys'' ("rough") and ''oura'' ("tail"). Some species, such as ''T. murphyi'', are harvested in purse seine nets, and

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing Fish stocks, fish stock), resu ...

(harvesting beyond sustainable levels) has sometimes occurred. It is often used in

Japanese cuisine Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese language, Japanese: ) is based on rice with m ...

, where it is called ''aji'', in

Turkish cuisine Turkish cuisine () is largely the heritage of Ottoman cuisine, Ottoman cuisine (Osmanlı mutfağı), European influences, Seljuk Empire, Seljuk cuisine and the Turkish diaspora. Turkish cuisine with traditional Turkic peoples, Turkic elements s ...

, where it is called ''istavrit'', and in

Portuguese Cuisine Portuguese cuisine () consists of the traditions and practices of cooking in Portugal. The oldest known book on Portuguese cuisine, entitled ''Livro de Cozinha da Infanta D. Maria de Portugal'', from the 16th century, describes many popular dish ...

, where it is called ''carapau''.

Species

The genus ''Trachurus'' was defined in 1810 by

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; 22 October 178318 September 1840) was a French early 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ult ...

, who called the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

''Trachurus saurus''. Taxonomists later determined that ''T. saurus'' was in fact the same species as one described earlier as ''Scomber trachurus'', defined in 1758 by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

. Under the rules of

binomial nomenclature In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

, that species is now known as '' Trachurus trachurus'', commonly known as the Atlantic horse mackerel. The currently recognized species in this genus are:

References

* Fitch JE (1956
"Jack mackerel"
''CalCOFI Reports'', 5: 27–28. Extant Eocene first appearances Taxa named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque Marine fish genera {{Carangiformes-stub