Megalaspis cordyla
(Linnaeus, 1758) · speciesAt a glance
Sources10 archives
Databases and archives Megalaspis cordyla's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation11 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility1 862 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System1 312 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI390 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics386 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
Catalogue of LifeCOLtaxonomy↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The torpedo scad (Megalaspis cordyla), also known as the hardtail scad, finny scad, finletted mackerel scad or cordyla scad, is a species of moderately large marine fish classified in the jack and horse mackerel family, Carangidae. The torpedo scad is distributed throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific region, ranging from South Africa in the west to Tonga in the east, extending to Japan in the north and Australia in south. It is a schooling pelagic fish which occupies the surface layers of both inshore and offshore oceanic waters. The torpedo scad is easily identified by both its 'torpedo' shaped body and a series of detached finlets at the rear of both the dorsal and anal fins. The largest recorded individual was 80 cm long and weighed 4 kg, although it is more common at lengths less than 40 cm. It is a predatory species, taking a variety of fish, cephalopods and crustaceans by both active and filter feeding. There is a shift in diet as the species grow; however fish is the dominant prey in all size classes. Torpedo scad reach sexual maturity at 22 cm in females and 26.4 cm in males, with spawning occurring between March and July in India, where significant research into larval growth and morphometrics has been carried out. The torpedo scad is of major importance to fisheries throughout the Indo-Pacific, including India. Statistics (which exclude India) show the annual catch of the species has risen from 70,000 tonnes in 1997 to 107,000 tonnes in 2007. The major users of the species from this data are Indonesia and Malaysia. The torpedo scad is often taken by anglers, however it is considered only marginal table fare and is occasionally used as bait.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology2
Life cycle & reproduction1
Habitat & environment3
Uses & economy1
Other traits3
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Megalaspis cordyla has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type3 174 records
Origin
Range
Depth
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions15 of 38 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| DEWlocation not on record | 84 |
| Mutare Museumlocation not on record | 68 |
| CASlocation not on record | 63 |
| Kagoshima University Museumlocation not on record | 57 |
| Australian National Fish Collectionlocation not on record | 50 |
| Sydney, AU | 21 |
| Paris, FR | 19 |
| Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territorylocation not on record | 19 |
| Natick, US | 18 |
| Washington, US | 17 |
| South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversitylocation not on record | 15 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 14 |
| Los Angeles, US | 13 |
| SEAOBISlocation not on record | 10 |
| Chicago, US | 9 |
| Western Australian Museumlocation not on record | 9 |
| Cambridge, US | 7 |
| Curtin Universitylocation not on record | 6 |
| Vancouver, CA | 4 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 4 |
| FishBaselocation not on record | 4 |
| Louisiana State University, Museum of Zoologylocation not on record | 3 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 2 |
| University of California San Diegolocation not on record | 2 |
| ICM-CSIClocation not on record | 2 |
| 2 | |
| Montgomery, US | 1 |
| CSIRO, Australian National Fish Collectionlocation not on record | 1 |
| Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record | 1 |
| Toronto, CA | 1 |
| North Carolina Museum of Natural Scienceslocation not on record | 1 |
| National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korealocation not on record | 1 |
| University of Alberta Museumslocation not on record | 1 |
| Helsinki, FI | 1 |
| Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciêncialocation not on record | 1 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 1 |
| Universiti Malaysia Terengganulocation not on record | 1 |
| Institut Halieutique et des Sciences Marineslocation not on record | 1 |
Where the DNA of Megalaspis cordyla was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.