Menticirrhus туқымдасының сипаттамасы

Genus of fishes
Automatic taxobox
| fossil range = Late Miocene to Present
| image = Menticirrhus americanus2. jpg
| image caption = Menticirrhus americanus
| taxon = Menticirrhus
| authority = Gill, 1861
| type species = Perca alburnus
| type species authority = Linnaeus, 1766
| synonyms =
|synonyms ref = This genus has been placed in the subfamily Sciaeninae by some workers, but the 5th edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise subfamilies within the Sciaenidae which it places in the order Acanthuriformes.

Menticirrhus is a combination of mentum, meaning "chin", and cirrhus, which means barbel, an allusion to the single thick barbel on the chin.

Menticirrhus kingfish have elongated bodies which have a rounded cross section and a flat underside. The head is long and low with a somewhat conical snout which protrudes past the horizontal mouth. There are slits and pores above the mouth with a short, stout barbel on the chin with a pore at its tip and a number of pores at its base. The preoperculum may be smooth or weakly serrated and the gill cover is incised at its angle. The dorsal fin is supported by between 10 and 13 flexible sins and between 19 and 27 soft rays while the anal fin has a single weak spine and 7 to 9 soft rays. The scales are small and ctenoid. The largest species in the genus is the California kingcroaker (M. undulatus) which has a maximum published total length of and the smallest is the Paita kingcroaker (M. paitensis) which has a maximum published total length pf .