Family TETRAGONURIDAE

Tetragonuridae

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Introduction

The Tetragonuridae are a small family comprising the single genus, Tetragonurus, and three species (Nelson 2006); all are known from Australia.

Squaretails are found throughout the world in tropical and subtropical oceanic environments, extending to the continental shelf and slope. They are distinctive in being slender with a rounded body and having ridged scales arranged in spiralling rows. They are not part of a major commercial fishery. The maximum length is about 1 m.

Grey (1955) revised the family and Haedrich (1967, 1990) treated and listed all the known species. Last (2001) presented a key to species known from Australia.

General References

Grey, M. 1955. The fishes of the genus Tetragonurus Risso. Dana Reports 41: 1-75 figs 1-16

Haedrich, R.L. 1967. The stromateoid fishes; systematics and a classification. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard 135(2): 31-139 figs 1-56

Haedrich, R.L. 1990. Centrolophidae, Nomeidae, Ariommidae, Stromateidae, Tetragonuridae. pp. 1010-1022 in Quéro, J.-C., Hureau, J.-C., Karrer, C., Post, A. & Saldanha, L. (eds). Check-list of the Fishes of the Eastern Tropical Atlantic. Paris : UNESCO 1492 pp., 3 vols.

Last, P.R. 2001. Nomeidae, Ariommatidae, Tetragonuridae. pp. 3771-3785 in Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, T.H. (eds). The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fisheries Purposes. Rome : FAO Vol. 6 pp. 3381-4218.

Nelson, J.S. 2006. Fishes of the World. Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 601 pp.

Common Name References

Smith, M.M. & Heemstra, P.C. (eds) 1986. Smith's Sea Fishes. Johannesburg : Macmillan South Africa xx + 1047 pp. 144 pls. [851] (Squaretails)

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