Taxonomy of BIllfishes

Surya, S and Rohit, Prathibha and Abdussamad, E M and Landge, Asha and Santhosh, B and Nayak, B B and Kingsly, H Jose and Anil, M K (2022) Taxonomy of BIllfishes. In: ICAR-CMFRI -Winter School on Recent Development in Taxonomic Techniques of Marine Fishes for Conservation and Sustainable Fisheries Management. ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, pp. 169-177.

Text Winter School on Recent Development in Taxonomic Techniques of Marine Fishes for Conservation and Sustainable Fisheries Management_2022_Surya S.pdf Download (641kB)

Abstract

Billfishes are one of the apex predators in the pelagic food chain, distributed worldwide in the epipelagic waters of tropical and subtropical oceans. These fishes can disperse widely throughout the world oceans and spawn over broad geographic regions during a protracted season (Nakamura 1985). Billfishes are commonly seen within 200 m of the ocean water layer above thermocline but the occurrence up to 800 m is also reported. They are characterized by a prolonged upper jaw forming a long rostrum called bill and using the long bill to attack and stun their prey by moving their heads in various directions to make the prey unconscious and form a hassle-free prey capture. Sexual dimorphism is reported in billfishes with large sized females.

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