Caranx - Taxonomy and Naming

Taxonomy and Naming

The genus Caranx is one of 30 currently recognised genera of fish in the jack and horse mackerel family Carangidae, which are perciform fishes in the suborder Percoidei. The species has long been placed in the subfamily Caranginae (or tribe Carangini), with modern molecular and genetic studies indicating this subdivision is acceptable, and Caranx is well defined as a genus. Phylogenetically, the monotypic genus of Gnathanodon is most closely related to Caranx; and indeed its sole member was once classified under Caranx.

Caranx was created by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1801 to accommodate a new species he had described, Caranx carangua (the crevalle jack), which was later found to be a junior synonym of Scomber hippos, which in turn was transferred to Caranx. The early days of carangid taxonomy had over 100 'species' designated as members of the genus, most of which were synonyms, and a number of genera were created which were later synonymised with Caranx. Caranx took authority over these other genera names due to its prior description, rendering the rest as invalid junior synonyms. Today, after extensive reviews of the family, 18 species are considered valid by major taxonomic authorities Fishbase and ITIS, although many other species are unable to be properly validated due to poor descriptions. The fish in the genus are commonly referred to as jacks, trevallies or kingfishes. Like the genus Carangoides, the word Caranx is derived from the French carangue, used for some fishes of the Caribbean.