- Animals
- ›Chordates
- ›Vertebrates
- ›Ray-finned Fishes
- ›Spiny-rayed fishes
- ›Jacks, Flounders, Barracudas, and Allies
- ›Moonfishes and Billfishes
Billfishes
Istiophoridae
A marlin is a fish from the family Istiophoridae, which includes about 10 species. It has an elongated body, a spear-like snout or bill, and a long, rigid dorsal fin which extends forward to form a crest. Its common name is thought to derive from its resemblance to a sailor's marlinspike. Even more so than their close relatives, the scombrids, marlins are fast swimmers, reaching speeds of about 80 km/h (50 mph).
5 branches of this family, most-observed first · about 9 known species
Sailfishes
genusIstiophorus
Blue Marlins
genusMakaira
Kajikia
genusKajikia
Spearfishes
genusTetrapturus
Istiompax
genusIstiompax
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Istiophoridae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 47542.