Mormyrinae
Sign in to saveThe subfamily Mormyrinae contains all but one of the genera of the African freshwater fish family Mormyridae in the order Osteoglossiformes. They are often called elephantfish due to a long protrusion below their mouths used to detect buried invertebrates that is suggestive of a tusk or trunk (some such as Marcusenius senegalensis gracilis are sometimes called trunkfish though this term is usually associated with an unrelated group of fish). They can also be called tapirfish.
In the Vinony graph
Within Vinony's link graph, Mormyrinae is referenced by 55 other articles, and connects out to electroreception, Petrocephalus and Genyomyrus donnyi.
It sits within the topics Actinopterygii subfamilies, Fish of Africa and Mormyridae.
Its subject is documented across 7 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Parent taxon
- Mormyridae
- Image
- Gnathonemus petersii.jpg
Show 2 more facts
- taxon rank
- subfamily
- taxon name
- Mormyrinae
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Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Unique brain percentage of body energy consumption
- Large brains
- Classification
- In culture
- References
The subfamily Mormyrinae contains all but one of the genera of the African freshwater fish family Mormyridae in the order Osteoglossiformes. They are often called elephantfish due to a long protrusion below their mouths used to detect buried invertebrates that is suggestive of a tusk or trunk (some such as Marcusenius senegalensis gracilis are sometimes called trunkfish though this term is usually associated with an unrelated group of fish). They can also be called tapirfish.
Fish in this subfamily have a high brain to body mass ratio due to an expanded cerebellum (called a gigantocerebellum) used in their electroperception. Linked to this they are notable for holding the zoological record at around 60% as the brains that consume the most energy as a percentage of the body's metabolic rate of any animal. Previous to this discovery, it was the “human brain, which had been thought to hold the record in this respect”.p. 605 The human brain in comparison uses only 20%.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mormyrinae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.