Dorab Wolf Herring

• It is the only group of clupeiforms — the order of sardines and herrings — to have become a predator of other fish and developed canine teeth.
• Its body, very thin and flexible, bends easily, and its silvery scales come away at the slightest touch.
• It is a herring with wolf's teeth: despite belonging to the same order as herrings and sardines, it has long, sharp fangs in both jaws and hunts other fish, including its own clupeiform relatives.
• It is drawn to lights at night and leaps out of the water towards boats. With those teeth, the leaps have injured unwary fishermen.
• Clupeiforms like this one have extraordinary hearing, thanks to two pairs of air bubbles in the inner ear; some members of the group even detect ultrasound.
• It is distinguished from its only congener, Chirocentrus nudus, by the black mark on the upper part of the dorsal fin and by its somewhat shorter pectoral fin.
• The name dorab comes from Arabic, and the genus name means hand sting in Greek.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (fish)

Habitat & environment

Shallow coastal waters of the Indo-Pacific

Sources consulted: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorab_wolf-herring