Mercer's tusked silverside

Mercer's tusked silverside, Dentatherina merceri, is a small fish of the west-central Pacific and the only member of the family Dentatherinidae. It is found from the Philippines to north-eastern Australia and from the Moluccas to the Trobriand Islands, close inshore around islands and over coral reefs. Apart from its larval biology little is known about the species, and it may be eaten by some commercially important fish. The genus Dentatherina was first classified in the Atherinidae. In 1984 L. R. Parenti treated it and the other phallostethids as sister taxa, but whether the two groups should be ranked as separate families or as subfamilies of Phallostethidae is a subjective decision. Its distinctiveness can be argued in favour of separate family recognition, and FishBase places the species in a family of its own.