Thunnus

Tuna Fossil range: Middle Eocene to Present[1]
Yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Scombridae
Genus:	Thunnus South, 1845
Species
See text.

Thunnus is a genus of ocean-dwelling fish in the family Scombridae, all of which are tuna, although other tuna species are found in other genera. The name of the genus is the Latinized form of the Greek θύννος, thýnnos, tuna, the word being first mentioned in Homer.

Species

There are eight species:

• Albacore, Thunnus alalunga (Bonnaterre, 1788).
• Bigeye tuna, Thunnus obesus (Lowe, 1839).
• Blackfin tuna, Thunnus atlanticus (Lesson, 1831).
• Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844).
• Northern bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus (Linnaeus, 1758).
• Southern bluefin tuna, Thunnus maccoyii (Castelnau, 1872).
• Longtail tuna, Thunnus tonggol (Bleeker, 1851).
• Yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares (Bonnaterre, 1788).

Species of several other genera (all in the family Scombridae) also have common names containing tuna.

Maximum reported sizes of Thunnus species.

References

• Clover, Charles. 2004. The End of the Line: How overfishing is changing the world and what we eat. Ebury Press, London. ISBN 0-09-189780-7

1. ^ Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology 364: p.560. http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class. Retrieved 2008-01-08. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Thunnus

• Species of Thunnus. FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
• Nutritional benefits of tuna
• The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
• Japan's Sacred Bluefin, Loved Too Much" by Blaine Harden, The Washington Post, November 11, 2007