See text Clupeidae is a family of clupeiform ray-finned fishes, comprising, for instance, the herrings and sprats.

The adults typically live in large shoals, seeking protection from piscivorous predators such as birds, sharks and other predatory fish, toothed whales, marine mammals, and jellyfish.

As the fish mature this diet begins to shift towards larger and more substantive organisms, including more zooplankton and copepods.

This change in diet is possible due to their increase in body and gill raker size, which allows them to capture and process larger organisms to support themselves.

To moderate this, members of this family have been found to increase their swimming speed when they sense that there is a high concentration of food items in order to take advantage of this feeding period.

Many were formerly placed in the subfamily Clupeinae: Known fossil genera classified under the sensu lato concept of Clupeidae include:[8][9]