| Beckius Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Salmoniformes |
| Family: | Salmonidae |
| Subfamily: | Coregoninae |
| Genus: | † Beckius David, 1946 |
| Species: | †B. plicatus |
| Binomial name | |
| †Beckius plicatus David, 1946 | |
Beckius is an extinct genus of marine whitefish known from the Early Oligocene [1] of California. It contains a single species, B. plicatus, known only from a single fossilized scale from the Tumey Formation, a lens of the Kreyenhagen Shale. The scale was found to resemble those of Coregonus , although significantly different in many ways, leading to its classification as a new genus of Coregoninae. [2] [3] [4]
The genus name was later reused in 1992 for a scarab beetle from New Guinea, until it was discovered to be preoccupied; the beetle was thus renamed Debeckius . [5]