Anguillavus

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Anguillavus
Temporal range: Upper Cenomanian [1]
Anguillavus.jpg
Specimens of A. mazeni at the MIM Museum
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Anguilliformes
Family: Anguillavidae
Hay, 1903
Genus: Anguillavus
Hay, 1903
Type species
Anguillavus quadripinnis
Hay, 1903
Species
  • A. mazeniBelouze et al. 2003
  • A. quadripinnisHay, 1903

Anguillavus is an extinct genus of basal marine eel that lived during the upper Cenomanian of Lebanon. [1] It is the only known member of the family Anguillavidae. Its primitive nature compared to extant eels is indicated by it still retaining its pelvic fins, which have been lost in modern eels. [2]

It has two species: [3]

The species A. bathshebae, also described by Hay (1903), was synonymized with A. quadripinnis in 2003. [4]

In 1920, another fossil ray-finned fish from Cenomanian-aged marine strata in Kansas was initially also considered an eel like Anguillavus, and was described as Anguillavus hackberryensisMartin, 1922. In 1981, the holotype of "A." hackberryensis was reexamined, and found to not group with the rest of the genus, but rather be a dercetid aulopiform fish. [2] Robins (1989) went as far as classifying Anguillavus as a whole as not an eel. However, later studies have firmly refuted this, and have consistently recovered Anguillavus as a stem-eel. [5] [6]

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References

  1. 1 2 Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology. 363: 1–560. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2009-02-27.
  2. 1 2 Wiley, E. O.; Stewart, J. D. (1981). "Urenchelys abditus , new species, the first undoubted eel (Teleostei: Anguilliformes) from the Cretaceous of North America". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 1 (1): 43–47. doi:10.1080/02724634.1981.10011877. ISSN   0272-4634.
  3. "PBDB". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2024-02-20.
  4. Belouze, A.; Gayet, M.; Atallah, C. (2003-01-01). "Les premiers Anguilliformes : I. Révision des genres cénomaniens Anguillavus HAY, 1903 et Luenchelys nov. gen". Géobios. 36 (3): 241–273. Bibcode:2003Geobi..36..241B. doi:10.1016/S0016-6995(03)00029-9.
  5. Johnson, G. David; Ida, Hitoshi; Sakaue, Jiro; Sado, Tetsuya; Asahida, Takashi; Miya, Masaki (2012-03-07). "A 'living fossil' eel (Anguilliformes: Protanguillidae, fam. nov.) from an undersea cave in Palau". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 279 (1730): 934–943. doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.1289. ISSN   0962-8452. PMC   3259923 . PMID   21849321.
  6. Pfaff, Cathrin; Zorzin, Roberto; Kriwet, Jürgen (2016-08-11). "Evolution of the locomotory system in eels (Teleostei: Elopomorpha)". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 16 (1): 159. doi: 10.1186/s12862-016-0728-7 . ISSN   1471-2148. PMC   4981956 . PMID   27514517.