Tarpons

Tarpons are the most primitive (i.e., evolutionarily ancient) species classified among the 30 orders of spiny-rayed fish designated as "true" bony fish (superorder Teleosti). Tarpons belong to the Order Elopiformes, which is subdivided into two suborders: the Elopoidei and the Albuloidei, which include three families. These are Elopidae (tenpounders, or ladyfish), the Megalopidae (the tarpons), and the Albulidae (bonefishes). The larva (leptocephalus) of fish in the order Elopiformes resembles the larva of eels.

The family Megalopidae includes only one genus, Megalops, and two species of tarpon: Megalops cyprinoides and M. atlanticus. The Megalops cyprinoides lives in the Indian and West Pacific Oceans, from east Africa to the Society Islands. The Megalops atlanticus lives in the western Atlantic Ocean, from North Carolina to Brazil, and also off tropical West Africa.