Acipenseriformes is an order of basal ray-finned fishes that includes living and fossil sturgeons and paddlefishes (Acipenseroidei), as well as the extinct families Chondrosteidae and Peipiaosteidae. They are the second earliest diverging group of living ray-finned fish after the bichirs. Despite being early diverging, they are highly derived, having only weakly ossified skeletons that are mostly made of cartilage, and in modern representatives highly modified skulls.
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.
Leedsichthys is an extinct genus of pachycormid fish that lived in the oceans of the Middle to Late Jurassic. It is the largest ray-finned fish, and amongst the largest fish known to have ever existed.
Pachycormus is an extinct genus of pachycormiform ray-finned fish known from the Early Jurassic of Europe. The type species P. macropterus was first named as a species of Elops by Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1818, it was placed into the newly named genus Pachycormus by Louis Agassiz in 1833. Fossils have been found in marine deposits from France, Germany and England. Pachycormus has recently been considered monotypic, only containing P.macropterus, with other species considered junior synonyms of the former, though this has subsequently been questioned. Pachycormus has generally been considered basal among Pachycormiformes, with a recent phylogeny finding it to be the second most basal pachycormiform after Euthynotus. It grew up to 1 m (3.5 ft) in length. The teeth are short and designed for grasping. Its ecology has been interpreted as that of a generalist predator. Stomach contents indicate that its diet included cephalopods, and small fish, including juvenile Pachycormus.
Barameda is a genus of rhizodont lobe-finned fishes which lived during the Tournaisian stage near the start of the Carboniferous period in Australia; fossils of the genus have been reported from the Snowy Plains Formation. The largest member of this genus, Barameda decipiens, reached an estimated length of around 3–4 metres (9.8–13.1 ft), while smallest species, B. mitchelli is estimated to have had a length of about 35 centimetres (14 in).
Pachycormiformes is an extinct order of marine ray-finned fish known from the Early Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous. It only includes a single family, Pachycormidae. They were characterized by having serrated pectoral fins, reduced pelvic fins and a bony rostrum. Pachycormiformes are morphologically diverse, containing both tuna and swordfish-like carnivorous forms, as well as edentulous suspension-feeding forms.
The Toolebuc Formation is a geological formation that extends from Queensland across South Australia and the Northern Territory in Australia, whose strata date back to the Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous. Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, protostegid turtles, sharks, chimaeroids and bony fish remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.
The Early Cretaceous Phu Kradung Formation is the lowest member of the Mesozoic Khorat Group which outcrops on the Khorat Plateau in Isan, Thailand. This geological formation consists of micaceous, brown to reddish-brown siltstone beds with minor brown and grey shale and sandstone beds. Occasional lime-noduled conglomerate occurs.
Bonnerichthys is a genus of fossil fishes within the family Pachycormidae that lived during the Coniacian to Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous. Fossil remains of this taxon were first described from the Smoky Hill Member of the Niobrara Chalk Formation of Kansas, and additional material was later reported from the Pierre Shale, Mooreville Chalk, Demopolis Chalk, Wenonah Formation, and Moreno Formation, among other localities. It grew to at least 5 metres (16 ft) in total body length, substantially less than the related Leedsichthys from the Jurassic which likely grew up to 16.5 metres (54 ft).
Magnapaulia is a genus of herbivorous lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaurs known from the Latest Cretaceous Baja California, of northwestern Mexico. It contains a single species, Magnapaulia laticaudus. Magnapaulia was first described in 1981 as a possible species of Lambeosaurus by William J. Morris, and was given its own genus in 2012 by Prieto-Márquez and colleagues.
Paleontology in Oklahoma refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma has a rich fossil record spanning all three eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Oklahoma is the best source of Pennsylvanian fossils in the United States due to having an exceptionally complete geologic record of the epoch. From the Cambrian to the Devonian, all of Oklahoma was covered by a sea that would come to be home to creatures like brachiopods, bryozoans, graptolites and trilobites. During the Carboniferous, an expanse of coastal deltaic swamps formed in areas of the state where early tetrapods would leave behind footprints that would later fossilize. The sea withdrew altogether during the Permian period. Oklahoma was home a variety of insects as well as early amphibians and reptiles. Oklahoma stayed dry for most of the Mesozoic. During the Late Triassic, carnivorous dinosaurs left behind footprints that would later fossilize. During the Cretaceous, however, the state was mostly covered by the Western Interior Seaway, which was home to huge ammonites and other marine invertebrates. During the Cenozoic, Oklahoma became home to creatures like bison, camels, creodonts, and horses. During the Ice Age, the state was home to mammoths and mastodons. Local Native Americans are known to have used fossils for medicinal purposes. The Jurassic dinosaur Saurophaganax maximus is the Oklahoma state fossil.
Luis María Chiappe is an Argentine paleontologist born in Buenos Aires who is best known for his discovery of the first sauropod nesting sites in the badlands of Patagonia in 1997 and for his work on the origin and early evolution of Mesozoic birds. He is currently the Vice President of Research and Collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and director of the museum's Dinosaur Institute. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the American Museum of Natural History, New York after immigrating from Argentina. Chiappe is currently the curator of the award winning Dinosaur Hall at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California, BBC advisor and author of scientific and popular books.
Augustynolophus is an extinct genus of herbivorous saurolophine hadrosaur dinosaur which was discovered in the Moreno Formation in California, dating to the late Maastrichtian age, making it one of the last dinosaurs known from the fossil record before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
Pycnodontidae is an extinct family of ray-finned fishes, ranging from the Jurassic period until the Eocene. It was the largest and most derived family of the successful Mesozoic fish order Pycnodontiformes, and the only member of it to survive into the Cenozoic.
The Beacon Limestone Formation, historically known as the Junction Bed, is a formation of the early Jurassic age (Pliensbachian–Toarcian). It lies above the Dyrham Formation and below the Bridport Sand Formation. It forms part of the Lias Group. It is found within the Wessex Basin and parts of Somerset, in England. It is well known for the Strawberry Bank Lagerstätte, which contains the 3-dimensionally preserved remains of vertebrates, including marine crocodyliformes, ichthyosaurs and fish, as well as insect compression fossils.
Sinamiidae is an extinct family of ray-finned fish. They are halecomorph fishes endemic to Early Cretaceous freshwater environments in East and Southeast Asia.
Teleosteomorpha is a clade of ray-finned fishes containing all teleost fish and their closest extinct relatives. Also in this group are two diverse Mesozoic fish orders, the Aspidorhynchiformes and the Pachycormiformes. Several other non-teleostomorph teleosteans existed throughout the Mesozoic, although not as dominant as the two main clades in the group.
Ginglymodi is a clade of ray-finned fish containing modern-day gars (Lepisosteidae) & 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.
Redfieldiiformes is an extinct order of ray-finned fish (actinopterygians) which lived from the Middle Triassic to Early Jurassic. Redfieldiiforms were fairly typical Triassic fish in overall anatomy. They had a fusiform body shape with thick, ganoine-covered scales. The dorsal and anal fins were large, positioned opposite from each other, and shifted back, close to the tail. The caudal fin was hemiheterocercal, with the vertebral column and body scales extending into an upper lobe equal in size and shape to the lower lobe. They also had several characteristic skeletal traits, such as a hatchet-shaped preopercle, a series of fulcra fringing the fins, a reduced number of branchiostegal rays, and a snout ornamented with tubercles.
