Hilton, Eric J.;Lavoué, Sébastien
Mormyridae
Sign in to saveThe Mormyridae, sometimes called elephantfish (more properly freshwater elephantfish), are a family of weakly electric fish in the order Osteoglossiformes native to Africa. It is by far the largest family in the order, with around 200 species. Members of the family can be popular, if challenging, aquarium species. These fish have a large brain size and unusually high intelligence.
OverviewAI-generated
Mormyridae is a family of fish within the order Osteoglossiformes, class Teleostei, and phylum Chordata. The taxon was described by Bonaparte in 1831 and is currently accepted. Common names for the group include elephantfishes, slonarice, and elefantfiskfamilien. The family inhabits both marine and freshwater environments.
Records for Mormyridae are held by several institutions, including MCZ, CUMV, CAS, AUM, and ROM. These records originate from countries such as Kenya, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, The Democratic Republic Of The, and Burkina Faso. The family has been documented in sources including the Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition.
Synthesized by Vinony from 30 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, GBIF, Gbif Occ, iDigBio, WoRMS, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Species
elephantfishes
FAMILY
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassTeleostei
- OrderOsteoglossiformes
- FamilyMormyridae
Die Nilhechte (Mormyridae) sind eine Familie afrikanischer Süßwasserfische. Im Deutschen werden sie, je nach Maul- und Schnauzenform auch Elefantenfische, Rüsselfische oder Tapirfische genannt.
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 40
- With media
- 9
- Family
- Mormyridae
- Collections
- MCZ, CUMV, CAS, AUM, ROM, NRM
- Recorded in
- Kenya, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, The Democratic Republic Of The, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Madagascar, Congo Kinshasa
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Parent taxon
- Osteoglossiformes
- Image
- Pez elefante.jpg
Show 6 more facts
- taxon name
- Mormyridae
- taxon rank
- family
- Commons category
- Mormyridae
- topic's main category
- Category:Mormyridae
- described by source
- Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition
- taxon common name
- slonarice
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Description and biology
- Electric fields
- Classification
- In culture
- External links
The Mormyridae, sometimes called elephantfish (more properly freshwater elephantfish), are a family of weakly electric fish in the order Osteoglossiformes native to Africa. It is by far the largest family in the order, with around 200 species. Members of the family can be popular, if challenging, aquarium species. These fish have a large brain size and unusually high intelligence.
They are not to be confused with the marine and brackish-water callorhinchid elephantfish (family Callorhinchidae) of Southern Hemisphere oceans.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mormyridae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.