Dorosomatidae is a family of clupeiform fishes. It is now recognized by FishBase as a family in its own right; it had been considered to be a subfamily of Clupeidae. It can primarily be distinguished only by phylogenetic analyses, though some minor shared morphological traits, such as the structure of the gill rakers and fins, have been identified. It contains the majority of tropical and subtropical clupeoid genera. It contains 31 extant genera.
Genera Dorosomatidae contains the following genera:
Fossil genera
The following fossil genera are also known:
†Bolcaichthys Marramà & Carnevale, 2015 (Early Eocene of Italy) †Chasmoclupea Murray, Simons & Attia, 2005 (Early Oligocene of Egypt)
Both these genera were originally assigned to the Clupeidae, with Chasmoclupea potentially being considered an alosid. However, due to some shared morphological characteristics, they have been reclassified into the Dorosomatidae. Due to a lack of distinguishing traits, Bolcaichthys is considered a stem group dorosomatid, while Chasmoclupea is a crown group dorosomatid potentially sister to Rhinosardinia.
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