Tuna - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The Thunnini tribe is a monophyletic clade comprising fifteen species in five genera:

• family Scombridae
  • tribe Thunnini: the tunas
    • genus Allothunnus: slender tunas
    • genus Auxis: frigate tunas
    • genus Euthynnus: little tunas
    • genus Katsuwonus: skipjack tunas
    • genus Thunnus: albacores, true tunas
      • subgenus Thunnus (Thunnus): bluefin group
      • subgenus Thunnus (Neothunnus): yellowfin group

The cladogram is a tool for visualizing and comparing the evolutionary relationships between taxons, and is read left-to-right as if on a timeline. The following cladogram illustrates the relationship between the tunas and the 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 to the tunas are the bonitos of the Sardini tribe.