28-409: An eel is a fish in the order of Anguilliformes. Eel , EEL or eels may also refer to: Eel see text Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes ( / æ ŋ ˈ ɡ w ɪ l ɪ f ɔːr m iː z / ), which consists of eight suborders, 20 families , 164 genera , and about 1000 species . Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to
56-681: A cheap dish in the United Kingdom . During the 1990s, their numbers collapsed across Europe. They became a delicacy, and the UK's most expensive species. Eels, particularly the moray eel , are popular among marine aquarists . Eel blood is toxic to humans and other mammals, but both cooking and the digestive process destroy the toxic protein. High consumption of eels is seen in European countries leading to those eel species being considered endangered. In 2010, Greenpeace International added
84-468: A common ancestor, but evolved independently. Monophyletic groups are typically characterised by shared derived characteristics ( synapomorphies ), which distinguish organisms in the clade from other organisms. An equivalent term is holophyly . The word "mono-phyly" means "one-tribe" in Greek. These definitions have taken some time to be accepted. When the cladistics school of thought became mainstream in
112-567: Is a monophyletic group that originated among the deep-sea eels. The earliest fossil eels are known from the Late Cretaceous ( Cenomanian ) of Lebanon . These early eels retain primitive traits such as pelvic fins and thus do not appear to be closely related to any extant taxa. Body fossils of modern eels do not appear until the Eocene , although otoliths assignable to extant eel families and even some genera have been recovered from
140-713: Is a traditional Māori food in New Zealand . In Italian cuisine , eels from the Valli di Comacchio , a swampy zone along the Adriatic coast, are especially prized, along with freshwater eels of Bolsena Lake and pond eels from Cabras, Sardinia . In northern Germany , the Netherlands , the Czech Republic , Poland , Denmark , and Sweden , smoked eel is considered a delicacy . Elvers, often fried, were once
168-599: Is an adjective form of an older word, ελλυ, meaning "snake", which is directly comparable to Hittite ellu-essar- "snake pit". This myth likely came to Greece via Anatolia. In the Hittite version of the myth, the dragon is called Illuyanka : the illuy- part is cognate to the word illa , and the -anka part is cognate to angu , a word for "snake". Since the words for "snake" (and similarly shaped animals) are often subject to taboo in many Indo-European (and non-Indo-European) languages, no unambiguous Proto-Indo-European form of
196-542: Is used as a metaphor for Nazi atrocities, and the sight of eels being killed by a fisherman triggers the madness of the protagonist's mother. Sinister implications of eels fishing are also referenced in Jo Nesbø 's Cockroaches , the second book of the Harry Hole detective series. The book's background includes a Norwegian village where eels in the nearby sea are rumored to feed on the corpses of drowned humans, making
224-666: The Campanian and Maastrichtian , indicating some level of diversification among the extant groups prior to the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction , which is also supported by phylogenetic divergence estimates. One of these otolith taxa, the mud-dwelling Pythonichthys arkansasensis , appears to have thrived in the aftermath of the K-Pg extinction, based on its abundance. Taxonomy based on Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes : Order Anguilliformes In some classifications,
252-481: The European eel , Japanese eel , and American eel to its seafood red list. Japan consumes more than 70% of the global eel catch. The English name "eel" descends from Old English ǣl , Common Germanic *ēlaz . Also from the common Germanic are West Frisian iel , Dutch aal , German Aal , and Icelandic áll . Katz (1998) identifies a number of Indo-European cognates, among them
280-788: The Northeast . Freshwater eels, known as Kusia in Assamese , are eaten with curry, often with herbs. The European eel and other freshwater eels are mostly eaten in Europe and the United States , and is considered critically endangered. A traditional east London food is jellied eels , although the demand has significantly declined since World War II. The Spanish cuisine delicacy angulas consists of elver (young eels) sautéed in olive oil with garlic ; elvers usually reach prices of up to 1000 euro per kg. New Zealand longfin eel
308-431: The slender giant moray . Adults range in weight from 30 g (1 oz) to well over 25 kg (55 lb). They possess no pelvic fins , and many species also lack pectoral fins . The dorsal and anal fins are fused with the caudal fin, forming a single ribbon running along much of the length of the animal. Eels swim by generating waves that travel the length of their bodies. They can swim backward by reversing
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#1732801842764336-412: The 1960s, several alternative definitions were in use. Indeed, taxonomists sometimes used terms without defining them, leading to confusion in the early literature, a confusion which persists. The first diagram shows a phylogenetic tree with two monophyletic groups. The several groups and subgroups are particularly situated as branches of the tree to indicate ordered lineal relationships between all
364-518: The Old English word for "hedgehog", which is igil (meaning "snake eater"), and perhaps in the egi- of Old High German egidehsa "wall lizard". According to this theory, the name Bellerophon ( Βελλεροφόντης , attested in a variant Ἐλλεροφόντης in Eustathius of Thessalonica ) is also related, translating to "the slayer of the serpent" ( ahihán ). In this theory, the ελλερο-
392-650: The Paleobiology Database: Freshwater eels ( unagi ) and marine eels ( conger eel , anago ) are commonly used in Japanese cuisine ; foods such as unadon and unajū are popular, but expensive. Eels are also very popular in Chinese cuisine , and are prepared in many different ways. Hong Kong eel prices have often reached 1000 HKD (128.86 US Dollars) per kg, and once exceeded 5000 HKD per kg. In India , eels are popularly eaten in
420-415: The descendants of a common ancestor, excepting one or more monophyletic subgroups. A polyphyletic grouping meets neither criterion, and instead serves to characterize convergent relationships of biological features rather than genetic relationships – for example, night-active primates, fruit trees, or aquatic insects. As such, these characteristic features of a polyphyletic grouping are not inherited from
448-516: The direction of the wave. Most eels live in the shallow waters of the ocean and burrow into sand, mud, or amongst rocks. Most eel species are nocturnal , and thus are rarely seen. Sometimes, they are seen living together in holes or "eel pits". Some eels also live in deeper water on the continental shelves and over the slopes deep as 4,000 m (13,000 ft). Only members of the Anguilla regularly inhabit fresh water, but they, too, return to
476-422: The eating of these eels verge on cannibalism. Monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms , monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of taxa which meets these criteria: Monophyly is contrasted with paraphyly and polyphyly as shown in the second diagram. A paraphyletic grouping meets 1. but not 2., thus consisting of
504-442: The eel fisheries at Ballisodare were greatly improved by the hanging of loosely plaited grass ladders over barriers, enabling elvers to ascend more easily. Several sets of classifications of eels exist; some, such as FishBase which divide eels into 20 families, whereas other classification systems such as ITIS and Systema Naturae 2000 include additional eel families, which are noted below. Genomic studies indicate that there
532-443: The eventual adult stage and are usually predators . The term "eel" is also used for some other eel-shaped fish, such as electric eels (genus Electrophorus ), swamp eels (order Synbranchiformes ), and deep-sea spiny eels (family Notacanthidae). However, these other clades , with the exception of deep-sea spiny eels, whose order Notacanthiformes is the sister clade to true eels, evolved their eel-like shapes independently from
560-413: The fact that a monophyletic group includes organisms (e.g., genera, species) consisting of all the descendants of a unique common ancestor. Conversely, the term polyphyly , or polyphyletic , builds on the ancient Greek prefix πολύς ( polús ), meaning "many, a lot of", and refers to the fact that a polyphyletic group includes organisms arising from multiple ancestral sources. By comparison,
588-918: The family Cyematidae of bobtail snipe eels is included in the Anguilliformes, but in the FishBase system that family is included in the order Saccopharyngiformes . The electric eel of South America is not a true eel but is a South American knifefish more closely related to the carps and catfishes . Phylogeny based on Johnson et al. 2012. Protanguillidae Synaphobranchidae Heterenchelyidae Myrocongridae Muraenidae [REDACTED] Chlopsidae Derichthyidae Nettastomatidae Congridae [REDACTED] Ophichthidae Muraenesocidae Moringuidae Eurypharyngidae Saccopharyngidae [REDACTED] Monognathidae Cyematidae [REDACTED] Nemichthyidae Serrivomeridae Anguillidae [REDACTED] Based on
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#1732801842764616-431: The organisms shown. Further, any group may (or may not) be considered a taxon by modern systematics , depending upon the selection of its members in relation to their common ancestor(s); see second and third diagrams. The term monophyly , or monophyletic , derives from the two Ancient Greek words μόνος ( mónos ), meaning "alone, only, unique", and φῦλον ( phûlon ), meaning "genus, species", and refers to
644-426: The sea to breed. The heaviest true eel is the European conger . The maximum size of this species has been reported as reaching a length of 3 m (10 ft) and a weight of 110 kg (240 lb). Other eels are longer, but do not weigh as much, such as the slender giant moray , which reaches 4 m (13 ft). Eels begin life as flat and transparent larvae , called leptocephali . Eel larvae drift in
672-508: The sea's surface waters, feeding on marine snow , small particles that float in the water. Eel larvae then metamorphose into glass eels and become elvers before finally seeking out their juvenile and adult habitats. Some individuals of anguillid elvers remains in brackish and marine areas close to coastlines, but most of them enter freshwater where they travel upstream and are forced to climb up obstructions, such as weirs , dam walls, and natural waterfalls. Gertrude Elizabeth Blood found that
700-714: The second part of the Latin word for eels, anguilla , attested in its simplex form illa (in a glossary only), and the Greek word for "eel", egkhelys (the second part of which is attested in Hesychius as elyes ). The first compound member, anguis ("snake"), is cognate to other Indo-European words for "snake" (compare Old Irish escung "eel", Old High German unc "snake", Lithuanian angìs , Greek ophis, okhis , Vedic Sanskrit áhi , Avestan aži , Armenian auj, iž , Old Church Slavonic *ǫžь , all from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ogʷʰis ). The word also appears in
728-874: The town is located. The daylight passage in the spring of elvers upstream along the Thames was at one time called "eel fare". The word 'elver' is thought to be a corruption of "eel fare". A famous attraction on the French Polynesian island of Huahine (part of the Society Islands ) is the bridge across a stream hosting three- to six-foot-long eels, deemed sacred by local culture. Eel fishing in Nazi -era Danzig plays an important role in Günter Grass ' novel The Tin Drum . The cruelty of humans to eels
756-437: The true eels. As a main rule, most eels are marine. Exceptions are the catadromous genus Anguilla and the freshwater moray , which spend most of their life in freshwater, the anadromous rice-paddy eel , which spawns in freshwater, and the freshwater snake eel Stictorhinus . Eels are elongated fish, ranging in length from 5 cm (2 in) in the one-jawed eel ( Monognathus ahlstromi ) to 4 m (13 ft) in
784-554: The word for eel can be reconstructed. It may have been *ēl(l)-u- , *ēl(l)-o- , or something similar. The large lake of Almere , which existed in the early Medieval Netherlands , got its name from the eels which lived in its water (the Dutch word for eel is aal or ael , so: " ael mere " = "eel lake"). The name is preserved in the new city of Almere in Flevoland , given in 1984 in memory of this body of water on whose site
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