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| Tuna | |
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| Tunas (from top): albacore, Atlantic bluefin, skipjack, yellowfin, bigeye | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Scombriformes |
| Family: | Scombridae |
| Subfamily: | Scombrinae |
| Tribe: | Thunnini Starks, 1910 |
| Genera | |
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A tuna (pl.: tunas or tuna) is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera,[2] the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max length: 50 cm or 1.6 ft, weight: 1.8 kg or 4 lb) up to the Atlantic bluefin tuna (max length: 4.6 m or 15 ft, weight: 684 kg or 1,508 lb), which averages 2 m (6.6 ft) and is believed to live up to 50 years.
Tuna, opah and mackerel sharks are the only species of fish that can maintain a body temperature higher than that of the surrounding water. An active and agile predator, the tuna has a sleek, streamlined body, and is among the fastest-swimming pelagic fish – the yellowfin tuna, for example, is capable of speeds of up to 75 km/h (47 mph).[3][4] Greatly inflated speeds can be found in early scientific reports and are still widely reported in the popular literature.[4]
Found in warm seas, the tuna is commercially fished extensively as a food fish, and is popular as a bluewater game fish. As a result of overfishing, some tuna species, such as the southern bluefin tuna, are threatened with extinction.[5]
| This article is part of a series on |
| Commercial fish |
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| Large pelagic |
| Forage |
| Demersal |
| Mixed |
Etymology
The term "tuna" comes from Spanish atún < Andalusian Arabic at-tūn, assimilated from al-tūn التون : 'tuna fish' < Middle Latin thunnus.[6] Thunnus is derived from Ancient Greek: θύννος, romanized: thýnnos used for the Atlantic bluefin tuna,[7] that name in turn is ultimately derived from θύνω thýnō, meaning "to rush, dart along".[8][9]
In English, tuna has been referred to as Chicken of the Sea. This name persists today in Japan, where tuna as a food can be called シーチキン (shi-chikin), literally "sea chicken".
Taxonomy
The Thunnini tribe is a monophyletic clade comprising 15 species in five genera:
- family Scombridae
- tribe Thunnini: tunas
- genus Allothunnus: slender tunas
- genus Auxis: frigate tunas
- genus Euthynnus: little tunas
- genus Katsuwonus: skipjack tunas
- genus Thunnus: albacores and true tunas
- subgenus Thunnus (Thunnus): bluefin group
- subgenus Thunnus (Neothunnus): yellowfin group
- tribe Thunnini: tunas
- family Scombridae
The cladogram is a tool for visualizing and comparing the evolutionary relationships between taxa, and is read left-to-right as if on a timeline. The following cladogram illustrates the relationship between the tunas and other tribes of the family Scombridae. For example, the cladogram illustrates that the skipjack tunas are more closely related to the true tunas than are the slender tunas (the most primitive of the tunas), and that the next nearest relatives of the tunas are the bonitos of the tribe Sardini.[2]
| The Tunas: Thunnini tribe, within the Family Scombridae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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