Mene

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

Genus of ray-finned fishes

title: "Mene" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["menidae", "paleocene-fish", "eocene-fish", "oligocene-fish", "miocene-fish", "prehistoric-fish-of-africa", "paleogene-fish-of-asia", "cenozoic-fish-of-europe", "prehistoric-fish-of-south-america", "extant-thanetian-first-appearances", "thanetian-genera", "ypresian-genera", "lutetian-genera", "bartonian-genera", "priabonian-genera", "rupelian-genera", "chattian-genera", "aquitanian-genera", "burdigalian-genera", "langhian-genera", "serravallian-genera", "tortonian-genera", "messinian-genera", "holocene-genera", "fish-genera-with-one-living-species"] description: "Genus of ray-finned fishes" topic_path: "general/menidae" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mene" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Genus of ray-finned fishes ::

| image = Razor Moonfish, 261台灣宜蘭縣頭城鎮大溪漁港 imported from iNaturalist photo 138975439.png | image_caption = Mene maculata | fossil_range = Thanetian to Present{{cite journal |last=Sepkoski |first=Jack |title=A compendium of fossil marine animal genera |journal=Bulletins of American Paleontology |volume=364 |page=560 |year=2002 |url=http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class |accessdate=2007-12-25 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723131237/http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class |archivedate=2011-07-23 | display_parents = 2 | parent_authority = Fitzinger, 1873 | taxon = Mene | authority = Lacépède, 1803 | synonyms = * Meneus Rafinesque, 1815

Gasteronemus Agassiz, 1833 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = *Mene maculata
†Mene rhombea
†Mene purdyi
†Mene oblonga
†Mene phosphatica
†Mene triangulum
†Mene novaehispaniae
†?Mene kapurdiensis

The moonfish of the genus Mene, the sole extant genus of the family Menidae, are disk-shaped fish which bear a vague resemblance to gourami, thanks to their thread-like pelvic fins. Today, the genus is represented only by Mene maculata of the Indo-Pacific, where it is a popular food fish, especially in the Philippines, where it is known as bilong-bilong, chabita, hiwas or tahas.

Taxonomy

Anatomical and recent molecular studies strongly suggest a relationship with the pomfrets, dolphinfishes, remoras and the jacks in the order Carangiformes.

Fossil record

As a genus, Mene has a long fossil history, with species found in marine sediments throughout the Cenozoic Era. The earliest accepted species, M. purdyi from the Paleocene of Peru, resemble later species, such as M. rhombea of the Monte Bolca lagerstätte, and even the living species, M. maculata. Experts remain undecided whether the Tunisian species, M. phosphatica is from the Lower Paleocene, thus making it older than M. purdyi, or whether it is from the Ypresian epoch of the Eocene. Almost all of the species are known primarily from the Paleogene; the Neogene record is rather sparse, if not totally nonexistent, with some otoliths found in Miocene strata, and no whole or even partial specimens known from Pliocene or Pleistocene strata.

The first species of the genus to be described was not the extant M. maculata, but rather the extinct fossil species Mene rhombea; however, M. rhombea was not initially classified in Mene, with the genus name being coined for the extant species.

File:Mene rhombea and Mene oblonga.jpg|Restoration comparing †Mene rhombea and †Mene oblonga File:Mene oblonga 443.JPG|†Mene oblonga File:Menidae - Mene rhombea 001.jpg|†Mene rhombea, from Monte Bolca File:Mene sp. from the Early Eocene Denmark.jpg|†Mene sp, from Fur Formation, Denmark File:Mene oblonga MCZ.jpg|†Mene oblonga from Monte Bolca

References

Small-scale fisheries of San Miguel Bay, Philippines: options for management and research. {{ISBN. 971-10-2208-7.
(2016). "Fishes of the World". Wiley.
Matt Friedman, and G. David Johnson. “A New Species of Mene (Perciformes: Menidae) from the Paleocene of South America, with Notes on Paleoenvironment and a Brief Review of Menid Fishes.” Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, vol. 25, no. 4, 2005, pp. 770–83. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4524505.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::