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clupeid

 
Dictionary: clu·pe·id   (klū'pē-ĭd) pronunciation
n.
Any of various widely distributed soft-finned fishes of the family Clupeidae, which includes the herrings, menhadens, and sardines.

adj.
Of, relating to, or belonging to the family Clupeidae.

[From New Latin Clupeidae, family name, from Latin clupea, a kind of small fish.]


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WordNet: clupeid
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: any of numerous soft-finned schooling food fishes of shallow waters of northern seas
  Synonym: clupeid fish


Wikipedia: Clupeidae
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Clupeidae
Fossil range: Early Eocene–Recent
[1]

Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Clupeiformes
Family: Clupeidae
Subfamilies

Dussumieriinae
Clupeinae
Alosinae
Pellonulinae
Dorosomatinae

Clupeidae is the family of the herrings, shads, sardines, hilsa and menhadens. It includes many of the most important food fishes in the world.

Contents

Description and biology

Clupeids are mostly marine forage fish, although a few species are found in freshwater. No species has scales on the head, and some are entirely scaleless. The lateral line is short or absent, and the teeth are unusually small where they are present at all. Clupeids typically feeds on plankton, and range from 2 centimetres (0.79 in) to 75 centimetres (30 in) in length.[1]

Clupeids spawn huge numbers of eggs (up to 200,000 in some species) near the surface of the water. After hatching, the larvae live among the plankton until they develop a swim bladder and transform into adults. The adults typically live in large shoals.[2]

Commercial species

Important commercial species include:

Genera

References

  1. ^ a b "Clupeidae". FishBase. Ed. Rainer Froese and Daniel Pauly. December 2008 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2008.
  2. ^ Nelson, Gareth (1998). Paxton, J.R. & Eschmeyer, W.N.. ed. Encyclopedia of Fishes. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 91-92. ISBN 0-12-547665-5. 

 
 
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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Clupeidae" Read more