Aulopiformes is a diverse order of marine ray-finned fish consisting of some 15 extant and several prehistoric families with about 45 genera and over 230 species. The common names grinners, lizardfishes and allies, or aulopiforms are sometimes used for this group. The scientific name means "Aulopus-shaped", from Aulopus + the standard fish order suffix "-formes". It ultimately derives from Ancient Greek aulós + Latin forma, the former in reference to the elongated shape of many aulopiforms.
The London Clay Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian age which crops out in the southeast of England. The London Clay is well known for its fossil content. The fossils from the lower Eocene rocks indicate a moderately warm climate, the tropical or subtropical flora. Though sea levels changed during the deposition of the clay, the habitat was generally a lush forest – perhaps like in Indonesia or East Africa today – bordering a warm, shallow ocean.
Osteoglossidae is a family of large-sized freshwater fish, which includes the arowanas and arapaima. They are commonly known as bonytongues. The family contains two extant subfamilies Arapaiminae and Osteoglossinae, with a total of five living genera. The extinct Phareodontinae are known from worldwide during the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene; they are generally considered to be crown group osteoglossids that are more closely related to one of the extant osteoglossid subfamilies than the other, though their exact position varies.
Berycopsis is an extinct genus of marine ray-finned fish from the Late Cretaceous period. Fossils are known from England, Germany, and Lebanon. A potential specimen is known from the Czech Republic.
Congorhynchus is an enigmatic, likely polyphyletic genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish that was described by E. Darteville and E. Casier in 1949.
Cimolichthys is an extinct genus of large predatory marine aulopiform ray-finned fish known worldwide from the Late Cretaceous. It is the only member of the family Cimolichthyidae.
Caproberyx is an extinct genus of marine acanthomorph ray-finned fish, possibly a holocentrid, from the Late Cretaceous.
Bananogmius is an extinct genus of marine ray-finned fish that was found in what is now North America and Europe during the Late Cretaceous, from the Cenomanian to the Santonian. It lived in the Western Interior Seaway, which split North America in two during the Late Cretaceous, as well as the proto-North Sea of Europe.
Beerichthys is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish. It contains a single species, Beerichthys ingens, that was a member of the Ypresian London Clay fauna of lower Eocene England.
Bramoides is an extinct genus of marine ray-finned fish that lived during the lower Eocene. It contains a single species, B. brieni, known from the London Clay.
Aulopopsis is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish that lived during the lower Eocene. It is considered a relative of lizardfish in the order Aulopiformes, but its exact taxonomic placement is uncertain. Some authorities place it with the Aulopidae, while others place it with the Giganturoidae.
Argilloberyx is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine bony fish that lived during the lower Eocene. It contains one species, A. prestwichae, known from the London Clay Formation on the Isle of Sheppey, United Kingdom. It is considered a member of the family Berycidae.
Acrognathus is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish belonging to the order Aulopiformes. Although no extensive systematic analysis has been performed, it is tentatively placed with the greeneyes in the family Chlorophthalmidae, making it the oldest representative of that family.
Ctenothrissa is a prehistoric genus of marine ray-finned fish in the order Ctenothrissiformes. It contains a number of species known from the Late Cretaceous of England and Lebanon.
Ctenodentex is an extinct genus of prehistoric seabream from the middle Eocene of Europe. It contains a single species, C. laekeniensis, from the Bartonian-aged Wemmel Member of the Maldegem Formation in Belgium. It was initially described as Dentex laekeniensis before being placed in its own genus, Ctenodentex, although some authors continue to classify it in Dentex.
Dinelops is an extinct genus of marine ray-finned fish from the Late Cretaceous. It contains a single species, D. ornatus, from the Cenomanian of England. It was initially and often continues to be classified in the Osmeroididae, a family of extinct elopomorph fish that are placed in either the Albuliformes or Elopiformes. However, other studies place Osmeroides in the Albuliformes and Dinelops in the Elopiformes.
Pangalliformes is the scientific name of a provisional clade of birds within the group Galloanserae. It is defined as all birds more closely related to chickens than to ducks, and includes all modern chickens, turkeys, pheasants, and megapodes, as well as extinct species that do not fall within the crown group Galliformes.
Danuvius guggenmosi is an extinct species of great ape that lived 11.6 million years ago during the Middle–Late Miocene in southern Germany. It is the sole member of the genus Danuvius. The area at this time was probably a woodland with a seasonal climate. A male specimen was estimated to have weighed about 31 kg (68 lb), and two females 17 and 19 kg. Both genus and species were described in November 2019.
Rhamphoichthys is an extinct genus of billfish-like plethodid ray-finned fish from Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian). It contains one valid species, R. taxidiotis from the Hesseltal Formation of Germany and the Sannine Formation of Lebanon, in addition to two dubious species that are considered nomina nuda due to their fragmentary nature.
Lamprimorpha is a superorder of marine ray-finned fishes, representing a basal group of the highly diverse clade Acanthomorpha. Represented today only by the order Lampriformes, recent studies have recovered other basal fossil species of the group dating as far back as the Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. Some of these fossil taxa, such as the paraphyletic genus Aipichthys, are among the oldest known fossil acanthomorphs, and overall they appear to have been a major component of the marine fish fauna at that time. Lamprimorpha is thought to be the sister group to the superorder Paracanthopterygii, which contains cod, dories, and trout-perches; however, Lamprimorpha may instead be sister to Acanthopterygii.
