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Tylosurus

Genus of fishes

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Source updated May 12, 2026

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Tylosurus is a genus of needlefish, one of ten in the family Belonidae. They are found worldwide in tropical and warmer temperate seas and two species have been recorded as Lessepsian migrants in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

01Species

The seven currently recognized species in this genus are:

Tylosurus acus (Lacepède, 1803)
- T. a. acus (Lacépède, 1803) (Agujon needlefish)
- T. a. imperialis (Rafinesque, 1810)
- T. a. melanotus (Bleeker, 1850) (keel-jawed needlefish)
- T. a. rafale Collette & Parin, 1970 (Atlantic agujon needlefish)
Tylosurus choram (Rüppell, 1837) (Red Sea houndfish)
Tylosurus crocodilus (Péron & Lesueur, 1821) (Houndfish or crocodile needlefish)
Tylosurus fodiator D. S. Jordan & C. H. Gilbert, 1882 (Mexican needlefish)
Tylosurus gavialoides (Castelnau, 1873) (Stout long tom)
Tylosurus pacificus (Steindachner, 1876) (Pacific agujon needlefish)
Tylosurus punctulatus (Günther, 1872) (Spotted long tom)

02Etymology

The generic name Tylosurus is a compound created from the Greek words tylos meaning a "callus" and oura meaning "tail", this refers to the keel like structures on the caudal peduncle of these fish.

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Tylosurus”, 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:

Tylosurus crocodilus crocodilus Réunion.jpg by Philippe Bourjon, CC BY-SA 3.0

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