Tuna Fossil range: Middle Eocene to Present1
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.

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

• "Thunnus". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.

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 on 8 January 2008. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Thunnus

• Nutritional benefits of tuna
• Japan's Sacred Bluefin, Loved Too Much" by Blaine Harden, The Washington Post, November 11, 2007