Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish that constitutes the only currently extant family in the order Salmoniformes, consisting of 11 extant genera and over 200 species collectively known as "salmonids" or "salmonoids". The family includes salmon, trout, char, graylings, freshwater whitefishes, taimens and lenoks, all coldwater mid-level predatory fish that inhabit the subarctic and cool temperate waters of the Northern Hemisphere. The Atlantic salmon, whose Latin name became that of its genus Salmo, is also the eponym of the family and order names.
The bowfin is a ray-finned fish native to North America. Common names include mudfish, mud pike, dogfish, grindle, grinnel, swamp trout, and choupique. It is regarded as a relict, being one of only two surviving species of the Halecomorphi, a group of fish that first appeared during the Early Triassic, around 250 million years ago. The bowfin is often considered a "living fossil" because they have retained some morphological characteristics of their early ancestors. It is one of two species in the genus Amia, along with Amia ocellicauda, the eyespot bowfin. The closest living relatives of bowfins are gars, with the two groups being united in the clade Holostei.
The Amiiformes order of fish has only two extant species, the bowfins: Amia calva and Amia ocellicauda, the latter recognized as a separate species in 2022. These Amiiformes are found in the freshwater systems of North America, in the United States and parts of southern Canada. They live in freshwater streams, rivers, and swamps. The order first appeared in the Triassic, and the extinct members include both marine and freshwater species, many of which are morphologically disparate from bowfins, such as the caturids.
Snakeflies are a group of predatory insects comprising the order Raphidioptera with two extant families: Raphidiidae and Inocelliidae, consisting of roughly 260 species. In the past, the group had a much wider distribution than it does now; snakeflies are found in temperate regions worldwide but are absent from the tropics and the Southern Hemisphere. Recognisable representatives of the group first appeared during the Early Jurassic. They are a relict group, having reached their apex of diversity during the Cretaceous before undergoing substantial decline.
Holostei is a group of ray-finned bony fish. It is divided into two major clades, the Halecomorphi, represented by the single living genus, Amia with two species, the bowfins, as well as the Ginglymodi, the sole living representatives being the gars (Lepisosteidae), represented by seven living species in two genera. The earliest members of the clade, which are putative "semionotiforms" such as Acentrophorus and Archaeolepidotus, are known from the Middle to Late Permian and are among the earliest known neopterygians.
Hemerobiidae is a family of Neuropteran insects commonly known as brown lacewings, comprising about 500 species in 28 genera. Most are yellow to dark brown, but some species are green. They are small; most have forewings 4–10 mm long. These insects differ from the somewhat similar Chrysopidae not only by the usual coloring but also by the wing venation: hemerobiids differ from chrysopids in having numerous long veins and forked costal cross veins. Some genera are widespread, but most are restricted to a single biogeographical realm. Some species have reduced wings to the degree that they are flightless. Imagines (adults) of subfamily Drepanepteryginae mimic dead leaves. Hemerobiid larvae are usually less hairy than chrysopid larvae.
Siamamia is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish in the family Amiidae. They are halecomorph fishes endemic to Early Cretaceous freshwater environments from north-eastern Thailand.
Calamopleurus is a prehistoric genus of marine halecomorph ray-finned fish from the Early Cretaceous of South America and northern Africa. It was a relative of the modern bowfin, with both belonging to the family Amiidae.
Amiopsis is an extinct genus of freshwater and marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Amiidae, making it closely related to the modern bowfin. Fossils are known from the Late Jurassic Solnhofen Limestone, Germany, the Early Cretaceous Purbeck Group, England, La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation, Spain and Bernnissant Iguanodon locality, Belgium and the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of the Balkans. The monophyly of the genus is questionable, due to it being based on a single character, "the presence of three or more lateral fossae on each side of most abdominal centra". Remains previously assigned to this genus from the Early Cretaceous Las Hoyas, Spain have been moved into the new genus Hispanamia.
Halecomorphi is a taxon of ray-finned bony fish in the clade Neopterygii. The only extant Halecomorph species are the bowfin and eyespot bowfin, but the group contains many extinct species in several families in the order Amiiformes, as well as the extinct orders Ionoscopiformes, Panxianichthyiformes, and Parasemionotiformes. The fossil record of halecomorphs goes back at least to the Early Triassic epoch.
Melvius is a genus of vidalamiin amiid ray-finned fish from the Late Cretaceous. The type species, Melvius thomasi, was described by Bryant in 1987 from Hell Creek Formation. A second species Melvius chauliodous, was named and described by Hall and Wolburg in 1989 from Kirtland Formation, and it is now considered to be one of the index taxa of the Kirtlandian land-vertebrate age. Both species of Melvius were very large at its size. A vertebral remain of M. thomasi would belongs to fish with standard length of 161 cm (5.28 ft), and there are some specimens exceeds height of that vertebra. Total length of this species would be at least 193–205 cm (6.33–6.73 ft). However, M. thomasi would be a “dwarf” compared to M. chauliodous, a specimen of M. chauliodous with abdominal centra which is 6.57 cm (2.59 in) wide would indicate standard length over 2 m (6.6 ft), and there is even larger abdominal centra which is 7.3 cm (2.9 in) wide.
Amia, commonly called bowfin, is a genus of ray-finned fish related to gars in the infraclass Holostei. They are regarded as taxonomic relicts, being the sole surviving species of the order Amiiformes and clade Halecomorphi, which dates from the Triassic to the Eocene, persisting to the present. There are two living species in Amia, Amia calva and Amia ocellicauda, and a number of extinct species which have been described from the fossil record.
Roger Lansing Grande, more commonly known as Lance Grande, is an evolutionary biologist and curatorial scientist. His research and work is focused on Paleontology, Ichthyology, Systematics and Evolution. He is well known for his work on the paleontology of the Green River Formation and for his detailed monographs on the comparative anatomy and evolution of ray-finned fishes. He has also published books on broader issues, engaging larger audiences on the importance of the natural and the social sciences.
Sinamiidae is an extinct family of ray-finned fish. They are halecomorph fishes endemic to Early Cretaceous freshwater environments in East and Southeast Asia.
Ginglymodi is a clade of ray-finned fish containing modern-day gars (Lepisosteidae) and their extinct relatives in the order Lepisosteiformes, the extinct orders Semionotiformes and Kyphosichthyiformes, and various other extinct taxa. Ginglymodi is one of the two major subgroups of the infraclass Holostei, the other one being Halecomorphi, which contains the bowfin and eyespot bowfin and their fossil relatives.
Amia? hesperia is an extinct species of ray-finned fish in the bowfin family, Amiidae. The species is known from fossils found in the early Eocene deposits of northern Washington state in the United States and southeastern British Columbia. The species is one of eight fish species identified in the Eocene Okanagan Highlands paleofauna.
The paleofauna of the Eocene Okanagan Highlands consists of Early Eocene arthropods, vertebrates, plus rare nematodes and molluscs found in geological formations of the northwestern North American Eocene Okanagan Highlands. The highlands lake bed series' as a whole are considered one of the great Canadian Lagerstätten. The paleofauna represents that of a late Ypresian upland temperate ecosystem immediately after the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum, and before the increased cooling of the middle and late Eocene to Oligocene. The fossiliferous deposits of the region were noted as early as 1873, with small amounts of systematic work happening in the 1880-90s on British Columbian sites, and 1920-30s for Washington sites. Focus and more detailed descriptive work on the Okanagan Highlands site started in the last 1970's. Most of the highlands sites are preserved as compression-impression fossils in "shales", but also includes a rare permineralized biota and an amber biota.
Maliamia is an extinct genus of amiid ray-finned fish from the Early Eocene, known from fragmentary remains found in the Tamaguélelt Formation of Mali. It was described in 1989, based on fossils recovered by three separate expeditions in 1975, 1979–80, and 1981. The type species is Maliamia gigas, named in reference to its large size.
Amia basiloides is an extinct species of giant bowfin that inhabited western North America during the Middle or Late Paleocene, about 5-10 million years after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. The species name originates from the Ancient Greek βασιλεύς (basileus), meaning "king", referencing its immense size.
Cyclurus is an extinct genus of freshwater amiid ray-finned fish known from the Late Cretaceous to the Early Oligocene across much of the Northern Hemisphere. It is thought to be the closest relative of the extant bowfins in the genus Amia, although species of Cyclurus were significantly smaller in size compared to Amia.
