Eekaulostomus Temporal range: Early Paleocene, | |
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Photograph and illustration of the type specimen | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Syngnathiformes |
Suborder: | Syngnathoidei |
Family: | † Eekaulostomidae Cantalice & Alvarado-Ortega, 2016 |
Genus: | † Eekaulostomus Cantalice & Alvarado-Ortega, 2016 |
Species: | †E. cuevasae |
Binomial name | |
†Eekaulostomus cuevasae Cantalice & Alvarado-Ortega, 2016 | |
Eekaulostomus is an extinct genus of marine fish from the Paleocene of Chiapas, Mexico. It contains one species, E. cuevasae, and is the only member of the family Eekaulostomidae. [1] [2]
Eekaulostomus was a syngnathiform, a member of the same order as modern trumpetfish, cornetfish, pipefish, and seahorses. It can be distinguished from other syngnathiforms by the prominent scutes covering its body, giving it an armored appearance. Its exact phylogenetic placement among the sygnanthiforms is debated, although it is known to belong to the "long-snouted" group (Syngnathoidei); it was initially recovered as allied with the trumpetfish superfamily (Aulostomoidea), but more recent studies have found it to be more closely related to the pipefish superfamily (Syngnathoidea). [2] [3] [4]
The only known specimen of Eekaulostomus was found in exposures of the Tenejapa-Lacandón Unit in the Belisario Domínguez quarry near the ancient Mayan city of Palenque. It inhabited the Caribbean region in the Early Paleocene, just a few million years after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The relative proximity of the locality to the Chicxulub crater indicates that marine ecosystems had likely recovered rapidly after the event, and that syngnathiformes are an ancient clade. [3] [5] [6]
The genus name originates from eek, the Mayan word for star, and Aulostomus ; this references its star-shaped scutes and close resemblance to the latter genus. The species name honors Mexican anthropologist Martha Cuevas García. [2]
Perciformes, also called the Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish in the clade Percomorpha. Perciformes means "perch-like". Among the well-known members of this group are perch and darters (Percidae), sea bass and groupers (Serranidae).
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.
The Syngnathiformes are an order of ray-finned fishes that includes the leafy seadragons, sea moths, trumpetfishes and seahorses, among others.
Cimolichthys is an extinct genus of large predatory marine aulopiform fish known worldwide from the Late Cretaceous. It is the only member of the family Cimolichthyidae.
Aspidorhynchidae is an extinct family of ray-finned fish from the Mesozoic Era. It is the only member of the monotypic order Aspidorhynchiformes. Members of the group are noted for their elongated, conical rostrums, of varying length, formed from fused premaxillae. The range of the group extends from the Middle Jurassic to the end of the Maastrichtian, with a potential record from the Late Paleocene. The family and order were described by Pieter Bleeker in 1859.
Vinctifer is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish erected by David Starr Jordan in 1919.
Aulostomoides is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish from the early Eocene. It contains a single species, A. tyleri from the Monte Bolca site of Italy. It is thought to be a member of Aulostomoidea, making it a relative of trumpetfish and cornetfish.
Aulorhamphus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish that lived from the early to middle Eocene. It contains four species known from the Early Eocene of Italy and the Middle Eocene of Russia. It was an aulorhamphid, an extinct family of syngnathiform fishes.
Bullichthys is an extinct genus of marine albuliform fish which existed in the Romualdo Formation, Brazil during the Early Cretaceous (Albian) period. The type species is B. santanensis. The genus name references its inflated otic bulla.
Callipurbeckia is an extinct genus of marine semionotiform ray-finned fish from the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods. Fossils have been found in Germany, Tanzania, and England.
Armigatus is an extinct genus of marine clupeomorph fishes belonging to the order Ellimmichthyiformes. These fishes lived in the Cretaceous ; their fossil remains have been found in Mexico, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, suggesting the genus ranged across the Tethys Sea.
Amia, commonly called bowfin, is a genus of ray-finned fish related to gars in the infraclass Holostei. They are regarded as taxonomic relicts, being the sole surviving species of the order Amiiformes and clade Halecomorphi, which dates from the Triassic to the Eocene, persisting to the present. There are two living species in Amia, Amia calva and Amia ocellicauda, and a number of extinct species which have been described from the fossil record.
Syngnathoidea is a superfamily of the pipefish order Syngnathiformes. It is divided into two families, the speciose pipefish Syngnathidae, which includes the sea horses and monotypic Solenostomidae, the ghost pipefishes, which has just five species. The superfamily occurs worldwide in tropical, subtropical and temperate seas, especially in coastal waters around rock and coral reefs and among sea weed and sea grass beds. However, there are also pelagic species of pipefish and even freshwater species. In total the superfamily comprises in excess of 50 genera and nearly 300 species.
Aulostomoidei is a superfamily of the order Syngnathiformes, which also contains groups such as the seahorses, pipefishes and dragonets. It is one of two superfamilies which make up the suborder Aulostomoidei within the Syngnathiformes.
Ovalentaria is a clade of ray-finned fishes within the Percomorpha, referred to as a subseries. It is made up of a group of fish families which are referred to in Fishes of the World's fifth edition as incertae sedis, as well as the orders Mugiliformes, Cichliformes, and Blenniiformes. It was named by W. L. Smith and T. J. Near in Wainwright et al. (2012) based on a molecular phylogeny, but the authors suggested that the group was united by the presence of demersal eggs that are attached to a substrate. Some authors have used the ordinal name Stiassnyiformes for a clade including Mugiloidei, Plesiopidae, Blenniiformes, Atherinomorpha, and Cichlidae, and this grouping does appear to be monophyletic.
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.
Enchodontidae is an extinct family of aulopiform fish known from the mid-late Cretaceous. It contains two subfamilies with several genera, including the famous Enchodus, with great morphological disparity among members of the group.
The Dercetidae are an extinct family of aulopiform fish that are known from the Late Cretaceous to the early Paleocene. They are among the many members of the diverse, extinct suborder Enchodontoidei, which were dominant during the Cretaceous.
The Enchodontoidei are an extinct superorder of aulopiform fish known from the Early Cretaceous to the Eocene. They were among the dominant predatory marine fish groups in the Late Cretaceous, achieving a worldwide distribution. They were an extremely diverse group, with some developing fusiform body plans whereas others evolved elongated body plans with long beaks, superficially similar to eels and needlefish. They could also grow to very large sizes, as seen with Cimolichthys and Stratodus, the latter of which is the largest aulopiform known. Their most famous member is the widespread, abundant, and long-lasting genus Enchodus.
The Tenejapa-Lacandón Formation is a geological formation and lagerstätte in southern Mexico and western Guatemala. It preserves fossils dating to the Early Paleocene.