Caranx hippos

Caranx hippos (Linnaeus); Crevalle jack Remarks: Caranx hippos was occasionally captured in Badagry during our field study. This species exhibits an elongated, deep, and moderately compressed body with a large eye. It is characterized by a first dorsal fin with eight spines, a second dorsal fin with a single spine and 20 soft rays. The body coloration is bluish black on the dorsal side and golden on the ventral side. A distinct oval black spot is present on the lower half of the pectoral fins, while the anal-fin lobe is entirely yellow. Other synonyms for C. hippos include Carangus esculentus (Girard), Caranx antilliarum (Bennett), Caranx carangua (Lacépède), Caranx carangus (Bloch), Caranx defensor (DeKay), Caranx erythrurus (Lacépède), Scomber carangus (Bloch), Scomber hippos (Linnaeus), and Trachurus cordyla (Gronow). Caranx hippos belongs to the C. hippos complex, along with its congeners—Pacific crevalle jack (Caranx caninus Günther) and longfin crevalle jack (Caranx fischeri Cuvier) (Smith-Vaniz & Carpenter, 2007). First described by Carl Linnaeus in 1766 as Scomber hippos (Linnaeus), based on a specimen from the Carolinas in the United States, C. hippos was initially grouped with mackerels before Carangidae was established as a separate family (Smith-Vaniz et al., 1999). The genus Caranx was later established by Bernard Germain de Lacépède, who redescribed the crevalle jack as C. carangua. This naming was invalidated, although genus Caranx was recognized as valid. Nevertheless, the relationship between C. hippos and its congener— C. caninus (Pacific crevalle jack) continued to be contentious (Smith-Vaniz & Carpenter, 2007). Early arguments proposed these taxa as conspecific, leading to trinomial names such as Caranx hippos hippos (Linnaeus) and Caranx hippos tropicus (Nichols) to distinguish subspecies. However, a modern review confirmed they are distinct species based on differences in hyperostosis development and anal fin coloration (Smith-Vaniz & Carpenter, 2007) and also named individuals from eastern Atlantic as C. hippos.