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Alosidae

Family of fishes

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
1 min read
Source updated September 11, 2026
Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

The Alosidae, or the shads, are a family of clupeiform fishes. The family currently comprises five genera worldwide, and about 33 species.

The shads are pelagic (open water) schooling fish, of which many are anadromous or even landlocked. Several species are of commercial importance, e.g. in the genus Alosa (river herrings), Brevoortia (menhadens), and Sardina. The Alosidae were previously included in the herring family Clupeidae.

01Genera

Alosidae contains the following 5 genera:

The following fossil Alosidae are also known:

  • †Eoalosa Marramà & Carnevale, 2017 (early Eocene of Italy)
  • †Moldavichthys Baykina & Schwarzhans, 2017 (mid-late Miocene of Moldova)
  • †Sanalosa Bienkowska-Wasiluk, Granica & Kovalchuk, 2024 (Oligocene of Poland)

The oldest member of the group was originally thought to be Pugliaclupea from the Campanian of Italy, but its placement in the Alosidae appears to be on weak grounds, and it has more recently found to be an ellimmichthyiform, most likely in the Armigatidae. True fossil members of the family are only known from the Eocene onwards. There appears to have been a significant center of endemism for the alosids and other clupeoids in the Paratethys. The freshwater †Chasmoclupea from the Oligocene of Egypt was originally though to be related to the Alosidae, but has since been found to be a dorosomatid.

02Ultrasound hearing

While the hearing of most fishes is limited in frequency to less than 1 kHz, some shads and menhadens demonstrate an unusual ability to detect very high frequency sound (ultrasound) above 50 kHz

Watch videos about AlosidaeExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Alosidae”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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Related topics

The Shad Foundation

The Shad Foundation is an international non-profit 501(3) organization established in 1996 for the study, protection, and celebration of shads around the world. Currently, there are more than 30 recognized shad species worldwide.

Shad Planking

The Shad Planking was an annual political event in Virginia which took place every April near Wakefield in Sussex County. It was sponsored by a chapter of the Ruritans, a community service organization which was founded in the small town of Holland about 30 miles to the southeast.

American shad

The American shad is a species of anadromous clupeid fish naturally distributed on the North American coast of the North Atlantic, from Newfoundland to Florida, and as an introduced species on the North Pacific coast. The American shad is not closely related to the other North American shads.