Ampheristus

Last updated

Ampheristus
Temporal range: Maastrichtian–Early Oligocene
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Ophidiiformes
Family: Ophidiidae
Genus: Ampheristus
König, 1825
Type species
Ampheristus toliapicus
König, 1825
Species

See text

Ampheristus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish. It was a basal or stem member of the family Ophidiidae, which contains modern cusk-eels. Fossils are known from worldwide (the United States, Europe, India, and New Zealand) from the Late Cretaceous to the late Paleogene (Maastrichtian to Oligocene), making it a rather successful survivor of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. [1]

It is one of the oldest known members of the order Ophidiiformes alongside Pastorius from the Maastrichtian of Italy. [2] Only the type species, A. toliapicus from the London Clay, is known from body fossils; the rest are known only by the genus's distinctive otoliths. [1]

Species

The following species are known: [3]

The species A. lerichei, known by a body fossil from the Eocene of Belgium and otoliths from the same region, is alternately placed in Ampheristus or Hoplobrotula . [8] [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gadiformes</span> Order of fishes

Gadiformes, also called the Anacanthini, are an order of ray-finned fish that include the cod, hakes, pollock, haddock, burbot, rocklings and moras, many of which are food fish of major commercial value. They are mostly marine fish found throughout the world and the vast majority are found in temperate or colder regions while a few species may enter brackish estuaries. Pacific tomcods, one of the two species that makes up the genus Microgadus, are able to enter freshwater, but there is no evidence that they breed there. Some populations of landlocked Atlantic tomcod on the other hand, complete their entire life cycle in freshwater. Yet only one species, the burbot, is a true freshwater fish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congridae</span> Family of fishes

The Congridae are the family of conger and garden eels. Congers are valuable and often large food fishes, while garden eels live in colonies, all protruding from the sea floor after the manner of plants in a garden. The family includes over 180 species in 32 genera.

The Danian is the oldest age or lowest stage of the Paleocene Epoch or Series, of the Paleogene Period or System, and of the Cenozoic Era or Erathem. The beginning of the Danian is at the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 Ma. The age ended 61.6 Ma, being followed by the Selandian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cusk-eel</span> Family of fishes

The cusk-eel family, Ophidiidae, is a group of marine bony fishes in the Ophidiiformes order. The scientific name is from the Greek ophis meaning "snake", and refers to their eel-like appearance. True eels diverged from other ray-finned fish during the Jurassic, while cusk-eels are part of the Percomorpha clade, along with tuna, perch, seahorses and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Argentinidae</span> Family of fishes

The herring smelts or argentines are a family, Argentinidae, of marine smelts. They are similar in appearance to smelts but have much smaller mouths.

<i>Paraulopus</i> Genus of fishes

Paraulopus is the only genus in the family Paraulopidae, a family of grinners in the order Aulopiformes. They are commonly known as cucumberfishes, but locally some other Teleostei are also known by that name. They were considered in the Chlorophthalmidae or greeneye family until 2001.

<i>Apateodus</i> Extinct genus of fishes

Apateodus is a genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish which was described by Woodward in 1901. It was a relative of modern lizardfish and lancetfish in the order Aulopiformes, and one of a number of prominent nektonic aulopiforms of Cretaceous marine ecosystems.

<i>Bathysoma</i> Extinct genus of fishes

Bathysoma is an extinct genus of marine lampriform ray-finned fish from the early-mid Paleocene. It contains a single species, B. lutkeni from Sweden. Its fossils are common in exposures of the Danian København Limestone Formation at Limhamns kalkbrott, one of the largest quarries in northern Europe. A single specimen is also known from an erratic boulder from the Selandian Lellinge Greensand Formation of southern Sweden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heterenchelyidae</span> Family of fishes

The Heterenchelyidae or mud eels are a small family of eels native to the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and eastern Pacific.

<i>Brychaetus</i> Extinct genus of fishes

Brychaetus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine bonytongue fish known from the Late Cretaceous to the late Eocene of Europe, North America, and northern Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Argentiniformes</span> Order of fishes

The Argentiniformes is an order of marine ray-finned fish whose distinctness was recognized only fairly recently. In former times, they were included in the Osmeriformes as suborder Argentinoidei. That term refers only to the suborder of marine smelts and barreleyes in the classification used here, with the slickheads and allies being the Alepocephaloidei. These suborders were treated as superfamilies Argentinoidea and Alepocephaloidea, respectively, when the present group was still included in the Osmeriformes.

<i>Pythonichthys</i> Genus of fishes

Pythonichthys is a genus of eels of the family Heterenchelyidae that occur in tropical waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean off of Panama and in the Atlantic Ocean near the Caribbean Sea and the west coast of Africa. It contains the following described species:

This list of fossil fish species is a list of taxa of fish that have been described during the year 2012. The list only includes taxa at the level of genus or species.

This list of fossil fishes described in 2015 is a list of new taxa of jawless vertebrates, placoderms, acanthodians, fossil cartilaginous fishes, bony fishes and other fishes of every kind that have been described during the year 2015, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleontology of fishes that occurred in the year 2015. The list only includes taxa at the level of genus or species.

This list of fossil fishes described in 2017 is a list of new taxa of jawless vertebrates, placoderms, acanthodians, fossil cartilaginous fishes, bony fishes and other fishes of every kind that are scheduled to be described during the year 2017, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleontology of fishes that are scheduled to occur in the year 2017. The list only includes taxa at the level of genus or species.

This list of fossil fishes described in 2020 is a list of new taxa of jawless vertebrates, placoderms, acanthodians, fossil cartilaginous fishes, bony fishes, and other fishes of every kind that were described during the year 2020, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleoichthyology that occurred in 2020.

This list of fossil fish research presented in 2021 is a list of new taxa of jawless vertebrates, placoderms, acanthodians, fossil cartilaginous fishes, bony fishes, and other fishes that were described during the year, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleoichthyology that occurred in 2021.

This list of fossil fish research presented in 2024 is a list of new taxa of jawless vertebrates, placoderms, acanthodians, fossil cartilaginous fishes, bony fishes, and other fishes that were described during the year, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleoichthyology that occurred in 2024.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Schwarzhans, Werner; Stringer, Gary L. (2020-05-06). "Fish Otoliths from the Late Maastrichtian Kemp Clay (Texas, Usa) and the Early Danian Clayton Formation (Arkansas, Usa) and an Assessment of Extinction and Survival of Teleost Lineages Across the K-Pg Boundary Based on Otoliths". Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia. 126 (2). doi:10.13130/2039-4942/13425. ISSN   2039-4942.
  2. Near, Thomas J; Thacker, Christine E (18 April 2024). "Phylogenetic classification of living and fossil ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii)". Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. 65. doi: 10.3374/014.065.0101 .
  3. "PBDB". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2024-02-16.
  4. Stringer, Gary; Schwarzhans, Werner (2021-09-01). "Upper Cretaceous teleostean otoliths from the Severn Formation (Maastrichtian) of Maryland, USA, with an unusual occurrence of Siluriformes and Beryciformes and the oldest Atlantic coast Gadiformes". Cretaceous Research. 125: 104867. Bibcode:2021CrRes.12504867S. doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2021.104867 . ISSN   0195-6671.
  5. "Palaeogene Fish Otoliths from Lignite Associated Succession (Cambay Formation) Khadsaliya, Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India". Gondwana Geological Society Nagpur, India. Retrieved 2024-02-16.
  6. Lin, Chien-Hsiang; Steurbaut, Etienne; Nolf, Dirk (2024-06-04). "Early Eocene fish otoliths from the eastern and southern USA". European Journal of Taxonomy. 935: 203–240. doi:10.5852/ejt.2024.935.2557. ISSN   2118-9773.
  7. Nolf, D.; Steurbaut, E. (2004). "Otolithes de poissons de l'oligocene inferieur du Bassin liguro-piémontais oriental, Italie" (PDF). Rivista Piemontese di Storia Naturale.
  8. "PBDB". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2024-02-16.
  9. Schwarzhans, Werner; Mörs, Thomas; Engelbrecht, Andrea; Reguero, Marcelo; Kriwet, Jürgen (2017-02-01). "Before the freeze: otoliths from the Eocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica, reveal dominance of gadiform fishes (Teleostei)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 15 (2): 147–170. Bibcode:2017JSPal..15..147S. doi:10.1080/14772019.2016.1151958. ISSN   1477-2019. PMC   5221741 . PMID   28077930.