Salmonidae

Salmonidae Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous–Recent PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N [1]
Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tschawytscha)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Infraclass:	Teleostei
Superorder:	Protacanthopterygii
Order:	Salmoniformes Bleeker, 1859
Family:	Salmonidae G. Cuvier, 1816
Genera
(see text)

Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish, the only living family currently placed in the order Salmoniformes. It includes salmon, trout, chars, freshwater whitefishes, and graylings, which collectively are known as the salmonids. The Atlantic salmon and trout of the genus Salmo give the family and order their names.

Salmonids have a relatively primitive appearance among the teleost fish, with the pelvic fins being placed far back, and an adipose fin towards the rear of the back. They are slender fish, with rounded scales and forked tails. Their mouths contain a single row of sharp teeth.^[2] Although the smallest species is just 13 cm (5.1 in) long as an adult, most are much larger, with the largest reaching 2 m (6.6 ft).^[1]

All salmonids spawn in fresh water, but in many cases, the fish spend most of their lives at sea, returning to the rivers only to reproduce. This lifecycle is described as anadromous. They are predators, feeding on small crustaceans, aquatic insects, and smaller fish.^[2]

Evolution

Current salmonids comprise three lineages, taxonomically treated as subfamilies: whitefish (Coregoninae), graylings (Thymallinae), and the char, trout, and salmons (Salmoninae). Generally, all three lineages are accepted to allocate a suite of derived traits indicating a monophyletic group.^[3]

The Salmonidae first appear in the fossil record in the middle Eocene with the fossil Eosalmo driftwoodensis, which was first described from fossils found at Driftwood Creek, central British Columbia. This genus shares traits found in the Salmoninae, whitefish, and grayling lineages. Hence, E. driftwoodensis is an archaic salmonid, representing an important stage in salmonid evolution.^[3]

A gap appears in the salmonine fossil record after E. driftwoodensis until about seven million years ago (mya), in the late Miocene, when trout-like fossils appear in Idaho, in the Clarkia Lake beds.^[4] Several of these species appear to be Oncorhynchus—the current genus for Pacific salmon and some trout. The presence of these species so far inland established that Oncorhynchus was not only present in the Pacific drainages before the beginning of the Pliocene (~5–6 mya), but also that rainbow and cutthroat trout, and Pacific salmon lineages had diverged before the beginning of the Pliocene. Consequently, the split between Oncorhynchus and Salmo (Atlantic salmon) must have occurred well before the Pliocene. Suggestions have gone back as far as the early Miocene (about 20 mya).^[3][5]

Classification

Together with the closely related Esociformes (the pikes and related fishes), Osmeriformes (e.g. smelts), and Argentiniformes, the Salmoniformes comprise the superorder Protacanthopterygii.

The Salmonidae are divided into three subfamilies and around 10 genera. The concepts of the number of species recognised vary among researchres and authorities; the numbers presented below represent the higher estimates of diversity:^[1]

Order Salmoniformes

• Family: Salmonidae
  • Subfamily: Coregoninae
    • Coregonus - whitefishes (78 species)
    • Prosopium - round whitefishes (six species)
    • Stenodus - beloribitsa and nelma (one or two species)
  • Subfamily: Thymallinae
    • Thymallus - graylings (14 species)
  • Subfamily: Salmoninae
    • Brachymystax - lenoks (four species)
    • † Eosalmo (one species, Eocene)
    • Hucho (four species)
    • Oncorhynchus - Pacific salmon and trout (12 species)
    • Parahucho - Sakhalin taimen (one species)
    • Salmo - Atlantic salmon and trout (47 species)
    • Salvelinus - Char and trout (e.g. brook trout, lake trout) (51 species)
    • Salvethymus - Long-finned char (one species)

Hybrid crossbreeding

The following table shows results of hybrid crossbreeding combination in Salmonidae.^[6]

note :- : The identical kind, O : (survivability) , X : (Fatality)

References

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Salmonidae.

• Behnke, Robert J. Trout and Salmon of North America, Illustrated by Joseph R. Tomelleri. 1st Chanticleer Press ed. New York: The Free Press, 2002. ISBN 0-7432-2220-2
• Dushkina, L.A. Farming of Salmonids in Russia, Aquaculture & Fisheries Management; Jan1994, Vol. 25 Issue 1, p121-126
• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2004). "Salmonidae" in FishBase. October 2004 version.
• "Salmonidae". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved December 12, 2004. 
• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2004). "Salmoniformes" in FishBase. October 2004 version.
• Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology. 364: 560. Retrieved May 17, 2011. 

Salmon
Groups and species	Salmon Salmonidae Adriatic salmon Atlantic salmon Black Sea salmon Pacific salmon Chum salmon Chinook salmon Coho salmon Masu salmon Pink salmon Steelhead Sockeye salmon Taiwanese salmon Danube salmon Sabertooth salmon Genetically modified salmon
Fisheries and management	Aquaculture of salmon Fly fishing bibliography Environmental issues with salmon Old McKenzie Fish Hatchery Pre-spawn mortality in coho salmon Puget Sound salmon Putcher Putcher fishing Alaska salmon fishery Salmon conservation Salmon run June hogs
As food	Salmon as food Cured salmon Gravlax Lohikeitto Lomi salmon Lox Rui-be Salmon burger Salmon cannery Salmon tartare Smoked salmon Images
Diseases and parasites	Diseases and parasites in salmon Amoebic gill disease Ceratomyxa shasta Gyrodactylus salaris Henneguya zschokkei Infectious salmon anemia virus M74 syndrome Myxobolus cerebralis Nanophyetus salmincola Salmon louse Sea louse Salmon tapeworm Sphaerothecum destruens Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae
Organisations	Atlantic Salmon Federation Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization Pacific Salmon Commission Welsh Salmon and Trout Angling Association Wild Salmon Center Yakima Klickitat Fisheries Project
Other	Ceasg H. Forman and Son (salmon smokehouse) Salmon (color) Salmon of Knowledge Salmon Fishing in the Yemen The Salmon Fly