Species group · Bony fish
WAnimals has 2 species of needlefish, spread across 2 families (Belonidae, Hemiramphidae).
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 2.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.
Recorded in 76 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
Its bones are a striking blue-green from a build-up of biliverdin, a bile pigment — a conspicuous but harmless trait that often puts off anyone cooking it for the first time.
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It leaps and travels out of the water on its tail, and serious injuries have been documented in the Black Sea and the Caribbean from needlefish jumping towards a lit boat at night.
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Its young hatch with a short beak and only develop the upper jaw later, in several stages.
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Its lower jaw is greatly elongated into a beak while the upper is short and triangular, which is where the name halfbeak comes from; the fleshy edge of the beak is red.
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The juveniles' beak is far less developed than the adults'.
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