Mormyrus

Mormyrus
File:Mormyrus.jpg
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Osteoglossiformes
Family:	Mormyridae
Genus:	Mormyrus Linnaeus, 1758
Species
See text
Synonyms
Mormyrodes Gill 1862 Mormyrus (Scrophicephalus) Swainson 1838 Scrophicephalus (Swainson 1838) Solenomormyrus Bleeker 1874

Mormyrus is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Mormyridae. They are weakly electric, enabling them to navigate, to find their prey, and to communicate with other electric fish.

Species

File:Matériaux pour la faune du Congo (6299123534).jpg

Mormyrus caballus (above), Mormyrus rume (below)

File:The fishes of the Nile (Pl. XI) (6961605933).jpg

Mormyrus hasselquistii (above), Mormyrus niloticus (below)

There are currently 22 recognized species in this genus:

• Mormyrus bernhardi Pellegrin, 1926 (Bernhard's elephant-snout fish)
• Mormyrus caballus Boulenger, 1898
  • Mormyrus caballus asinus Boulenger, 1915
  • Mormyrus caballus bumbanus Boulenger, 1909
  • Mormyrus caballus caballus Boulenger, 1898
  • Mormyrus caballus lualabae Reizer, 1964
• Mormyrus casalis Vinciguerra, 1922 (Somali mormyrid)
• Mormyrus caschive Linnaeus, 1758 (Eastern bottlenose elephant snout)
• Mormyrus cyaneus T. R. Roberts & D. J. Stewart, 1976 (Lower Congo River mormyrid)
• Mormyrus goheeni Fowler, 1919 (Liberian mormyrid)
• Mormyrus hasselquistii Valenciennes, 1847 (Elephant snout)
• Mormyrus hildebrandti W. K. H. Peters 1882 (Hildebrandt's elephant-snout fish)
• Mormyrus iriodes T. R. Roberts & D. J. Stewart, 1976 (Inga mormyrid)
• Mormyrus kannume Forsskål, 1775 (Elephant-snout fish)
• Mormyrus lacerda Castelnau, 1861 (Western bottlenose mormyrid)
• Mormyrus longirostris W. K. H. Peters, 1852 (Eastern bottlenose mormyrid)
• Mormyrus macrocephalus Worthington, 1929 (largehead mormyrid)
• Mormyrus macrophthalmus Günther, 1866 (Niger mormyrid)
• Mormyrus niloticus (Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801) (Egyptian trunkfish)
• Mormyrus ovis Boulenger, 1898
• Mormyrus rume Valenciennes, 1847 (Senegal mormyrid)
  • Mormyrus rume proboscirostris Boulenger, 1898
  • Mormyrus rume rume Valenciennes 1847
• Mormyrus subundulatus T. R. Roberts, 1989 (Bandama mormyrid)
• Mormyrus tapirus Pappenheim 1905
• Mormyrus tenuirostris W. K. H. Peters, 1882 (Athi elephant-snout fish)
• Mormyrus thomasi Pellegrin, 1938 (French Congo mormyrid)

In culture

section excerpt Mormyridae § In culture.[edit]

File:Oxyrhynchus fish Late Period-Ptolemaic (cropped).jpg

Bronze figurine of Oxyrhynchus fish, Late Period-Ptolemaic Egypt

The Medjed was a sacred fish in Ancient Egypt. At the city of Per-Medjed, better known as Oxyrhynchus, whose name means "sharp-nosed" after the fish, archaeologists have found fishes depicted as bronze figurines, mural paintings, or wooden coffins in the shape of fishes with downturned snouts, with horned sun-disc crowns like those of the goddess Hathor. The depictions have been described as resembling members of the genus Mormyrus.