Salmonidae Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous–Recent PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N [1]
Chinook/Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus tschawytscha/nerka)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Infraclass:	Teleostei
Superorder:	Protacanthopterygii
Order:	Salmoniformes Bleeker, 1859
Family:	Salmonidae G. Cuvier, 1816
Genera
(see text)

Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish, the only living family currently placed in the order Salmoniformes. It includes salmon, trout, chars, freshwater whitefishes and graylings. The Atlantic salmon and trout of genus Salmo give the family and order their names.

Salmonids have a relatively primitive appearance among the teleost fish, with the pelvic fins being placed far back, and an adipose fin towards the rear of the back. They are slender fish, with rounded scales and a forked tail. Their mouths contain a single row of sharp teeth.^[2] Although the smallest species is just 13 centimetres (5.1 in) long as an adult, most are much larger, and the largest can reach 2 metres (6.6 ft).^[1]

All salmonids spawn in fresh water, but in many cases, the fish spend most of their life at sea, returning to the rivers only to reproduce. This type of life cycle is described as anadromous. They are predators, feeding on small crustaceans, aquatic insects, and smaller fish.^[2]

Evolution[link]

Current salmonids arose from three lineages: whitefish (Coregoninae), graylings (Thymallinae), and the char, trout and salmons (Salmoninae). Generally, it is accepted that all three lineages share a suite of derived traits indicating a monophyletic group.^[3]

Salmonidae first appear in the fossil record in the middle Eocene with the fossil Eosalmo driftwoodensis first described from fossils found at Driftwood Creek, central British Columbia. This genus shares traits found in the Salmoninae, whitefish and grayling lineages. Hence, E. driftwoodensis is an archaic salmonid, representing an important stage in salmonid evolution.^[3]

A gap appears in the salmonine fossil record after E. driftwoodensis; until the late Miocene (~7 m.y.a.) trout-like fossils appear in Idaho, in the Clarkia Lake beds.^[4] Several of these species appear to be Oncorhynchus—the current genus for Pacific salmon and some trout. The presence of these species so far inland established that Oncorhynchus was not only present in the Pacific drainages before the beginning of the Pliocene (~5–6 m.y.a.), but also that rainbow and cutthroat trout, and Pacific salmon lineages had diverged before the beginning of the Pliocene. Consequently, the split between Oncorhynchus and Salmo (Atlantic salmon) must have occurred well before the Pliocene. Suggestions have gone back as far as the early Miocene (~20 m.y.a.).^[3][5]

Classification[link]

Together with the closely related Esociformes (the pikes and related fishes), Osmeriformes (e.g. smelts) and Argentiniformes, the Salmoniformes comprise the superorder Protacanthopterygii.

The Salmonidae (and Salmoniformes) are divided into three subfamilies and around ten genera:^[1]

Order Salmoniformes

• Family: Salmonidae
  • Subfamily: Coregoninae
    • Coregonus - Whitefishes (70 species)
    • Prosopium - round whitefishes (6 species)
    • Stenodus - inconnu (1 species)
  • Subfamily: Thymallinae
    • Thymallus - Graylings (12 species)
  • Subfamily: Salmoninae
    • Brachymystax - lenoks (3 species)
    • Hucho (5 species)
    • Oncorhynchus - Pacific salmon and trout (14 species)
    • Salmo - Atlantic salmon and trout (29 species)
    • Salvelinus - Char and trout (e.g. Brook trout, Lake trout) (49 species)
    • Salvethymus (1 species)

Timeline of genera[link]

<timeline> ImageSize = width:1000px height:auto barincrement:15px PlotArea = left:10px bottom:50px top:10px right:10px

Period = from:-145.5 till:15 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:-145.5 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:-145.5 TimeAxis = orientation:hor AlignBars = justify

Colors =

#legends
 id:CAR   value:claret
 id:ANK          value:rgb(0.4,0.3,0.196)
 id:HER   value:teal
 id:HAD   value:green
 id:OMN   value:blue
 id:black        value:black
 id:white        value:white
 id:cretaceous   value:rgb(0.5,0.78,0.31)
 id:earlycretaceous   value:rgb(0.63,0.78,0.65)
 id:latecretaceous   value:rgb(0.74,0.82,0.37)
 id:cenozoic     value:rgb(0.54,0.54,0.258)
 id:paleogene     value:rgb(0.99,0.6,0.32) 
 id:paleocene     value:rgb(0.99,0.65,0.37) 
 id:eocene     value:rgb(0.99,0.71,0.42) 
 id:oligocene     value:rgb(0.99,0.75,0.48) 
 id:neogene     value:rgb(0.999999,0.9,0.1) 
 id:miocene     value:rgb(0.999999,0.999999,0) 
 id:pliocene     value:rgb(0.97,0.98,0.68)  
 id:quaternary   value:rgb(0.98,0.98,0.5)
 id:pleistocene   value:rgb(0.999999,0.95,0.68)
 id:holocene   value:rgb(0.999,0.95,0.88)

BarData=

bar:eratop
bar:space
bar:periodtop
bar:space
bar:NAM1
bar:NAM2
bar:NAM3
bar:NAM4
bar:NAM5
bar:NAM6
bar:NAM7
bar:NAM8
bar:NAM9
bar:NAM10
bar:NAM11
bar:NAM12
bar:NAM13
bar:NAM14
bar:NAM15
bar:NAM16
bar:NAM17
bar:NAM18
bar:NAM19
bar:NAM20
bar:NAM21
bar:NAM22

bar:space
bar:period
bar:space
bar:era 

PlotData=

align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25 
shift:(7,-4)
 
bar:periodtop
from: -145.5    till: -99.6    color:earlycretaceous    text:Early
from: -99.6    till: -65.5    color:latecretaceous    text:Late
from: -65.5   till:  -55.8    color:paleocene  text:Paleo.
from: -55.8   till:  -33.9    color:eocene  text:Eo. 
from: -33.9   till:  -23.03    color:oligocene  text:Oligo.            
from: -23.03    till: -5.332    color:miocene    text:Mio.
from: -5.332    till: -2.588    color:pliocene    text:Pl.
from: -2.588    till: -0.0117   color:pleistocene    text:Pl.
from: -0.0117    till: 0    color:holocene    text:H.

bar:eratop
from: -145.5    till: -65.5   color:cretaceous    text:Cretaceous
from: -65.5   till:  -23.03    color:paleogene  text:Paleogene         
from: -23.03    till: -2.588    color:neogene    text:Neogene
from: -2.588    till: 0   color:quaternary    text:Q.

PlotData=

align:left fontsize:M mark:(line,white) width:5 anchor:till align:left

color:earlycretaceous bar:NAM1  from:-145.5    till:-130 text:Casieroides
color:earlycretaceous bar:NAM2  from:-145.5    till:-130 text:Chardonius
color:earlycretaceous bar:NAM3  from:-145.5    till:-130 text:Pseudoleptolepis
color:earlycretaceous bar:NAM4 from:-125    till:-112 text:Helgolandichthys
color:latecretaceous bar:NAM5 from:-99.6    till:-93.5 text:Barcarenichthyes
color:latecretaceous bar:NAM6 from:-99.6    till:-93.5 text:Gaudryella
color:latecretaceous bar:NAM7 from:-99.6    till:-93.5 text:Gharbouria
color:latecretaceous bar:NAM8  from:-99.6    till:-93.5 text:Ginsburgia
color:latecretaceous bar:NAM9  from:-99.6    till:-93.5 text:Pseudoberyx
color:latecretaceous bar:NAM10  from:-70.6    till:-65.5 text:Goudkoffia
color:latecretaceous bar:NAM11 from:-70.6    till:-65.5 text:Natlandia
color:eocene bar:NAM12 from:-55.8    till:-15.97 text:Thaumaturus
color:eocene bar:NAM13 from:-48.6    till:-37.2 text:Eosalmo
color:miocene bar:NAM14  from:-23.03    till:0 text:Salmo
color:miocene bar:NAM15 from:-23.03    till:0 text:Umbra
color:miocene bar:NAM16  from:-11.61    till:-2.59 text:Rhabdofario
color:miocene bar:NAM17  from:-11.61    till:-2.59 text:Smilodonichthys
color:miocene bar:NAM18  from:-11.61    till:0 text:Hucho
color:miocene bar:NAM19 from:-11.61    till:0 text:Prosopium
color:miocene bar:NAM20 from:-11.61    till:0 text:Salvelinus
color:pliocene bar:NAM21 from:-5.33    till:0 text:Oncorhynchus
color:pleistocene bar:NAM22 from:-2.59    till:0 text:Thymallus

PlotData=

align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25 

bar:period
from: -145.5    till: -99.6    color:earlycretaceous    text:Early
from: -99.6    till: -65.5    color:latecretaceous    text:Late
from: -65.5   till:  -55.8    color:paleocene  text:Paleo.
from: -55.8   till:  -33.9    color:eocene  text:Eo. 
from: -33.9   till:  -23.03    color:oligocene  text:Oligo.            
from: -23.03    till: -5.332    color:miocene    text:Mio.
from: -5.332    till: -2.588    color:pliocene    text:Pl.
from: -2.588    till: -0.0117   color:pleistocene    text:Pl.
from: -0.0117    till: 0    color:holocene    text:H.

bar:era
from: -145.5    till: -65.5   color:cretaceous    text:Cretaceous
from: -65.5   till:  -23.03    color:paleogene  text:Paleogene         
from: -23.03    till: -2.588    color:neogene    text:Neogene
from: -2.588    till: 0   color:quaternary    text:Q.

</timeline>

Notes[link]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Salmonidae

• Behnke, Robert J. Trout and Salmon of North America, Illustrated by Joseph R. Tomelleri. 1st Chanticleer Press ed. New York: The Free Press, 2002. ISBN 0-7432-2220-2
• Dushkina, L.A. Farming of Salmonids in Russia, Aquaculture & Fisheries Management; Jan1994, Vol. 25 Issue 1, p121-126
• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2004). "Salmonidae" in FishBase. October 2004 version.
• "Salmonidae". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=161931. Retrieved 12 December 2004. 
• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2004). "Salmoniformes" in FishBase. October 2004 version.
• Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology 364: p.560. http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class. Retrieved 2011-05-17. 

v t e Salmon Groups and species Salmon Salmonidae Adriatic salmon Atlantic salmon Black Sea salmon Pacific salmon Chum salmon Chinook salmon Coho salmon Masu salmon Pink salmon Steelhead Satsukimasu salmon Sockeye salmon Taiwanese salmon Danube Salmon Sabertooth salmon Genetically modified salmon Fisheries and management Aquaculture of salmon Fly fishing bibliography Environmental issues with salmon Maine Salmon Old McKenzie Fish Hatchery Puget Sound salmon Putcher Putcher fishing Alaska salmon fishery Salmon conservation Salmon run As food Salmon (food) Cured salmon Gravlax Lohikeitto Lomi salmon Lox Poacher's Relish Rui-be Salmon burger Salmon cannery Salmon tartare Smoked salmon Images Diseases and parasites Amoebic gill disease Ceratomyxa shasta Gyrodactylus salaris Henneguya zschokkei Infectious salmon anemia virus M74 syndrome Myxobolus cerebralis Nanophyetus salmincola Salmon louse Sea louse Salmon tapeworm Sphaerothecum destruens Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae Organisations Atlantic Salmon Federation Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization Pacific Salmon Commission Welsh Salmon and Trout Angling Association Wild Salmon Center Yakima Klickitat Fisheries Project Other Ceasg Salmon (color) Salmon of Wisdom Salmon Fishing in the Yemen The Salmon Fly