Jack mackerels or saurels[2] are marine ray-finned fish in the genus Trachurus of the family Carangidae.

The name of the genus derives from the Greek words trachys ("rough") and oura ("tail").

Some species, such as T. murphyi, are harvested in purse seine nets, and overfishing (harvesting beyond sustainable levels) has sometimes occurred.

The genus Trachurus was defined in 1810 by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, who called the type species Trachurus saurus.

Taxonomists later determined that T. saurus was in fact the same species as one described earlier as Scomber trachurus, defined in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus.