Characiformes is an order of ray-finned fish, comprising the characins and their allies. Grouped in 18 recognized families, more than 2000 different species are described, including the well-known piranha and tetras.
Squalicorax, commonly known as the crow shark, is a genus of extinct lamniform shark known to have lived during the Cretaceous period. The genus had a global distribution in the Late Cretaceous epoch. Multiple species within this genus are considered to be wastebasket taxon due to morphological similarities in the teeth.
Sclerorhynchus is an extinct genus of ganopristid sclerorhynchoid that lived during the Late Cretaceous. The genus Ganopristis is considered a junior synonym of Sclerorhynchus. It was a widespread genus, with fossils found in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and North America. While it had a long rostrum with large denticles similar to sawfishes and sawsharks, its closest living relatives are actually skates. Complete specimens of S. atavus show that its fin arrangement was similar to skates, with the pectoral and pelvic fins touching, both dorsal fins located behind the pelvic fins, and a reduced caudal fin.
Congorhynchus is an enigmatic, likely polyphyletic genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish that was described by E. Darteville and E. Casier in 1949.
Coriops is an extinct genus of freshwater osteoglossomorph fish, possibly a hiodontiform, with a single species known from the Late Cretaceous of western North America.
Rhombodus is a prehistoric genus of ray belonging to the family Rhombodontidae.
Ichthyodectiformes is an extinct order of marine stem-teleost ray-finned fish. The order is named after the genus Ichthyodectes, established by Edward Drinker Cope in 1870. Ichthyodectiforms are usually considered to be some of the closest relatives of the teleost crown group.
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.
Axelrodichthys is an extinct genus of mawsoniid coelacanth from the Cretaceous of Africa, North and South America, and Europe. Several species are known, the remains of which were discovered in the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) of Brazil, North Africa, and possibly Mexico, as well as in the Upper Cretaceous of Morocco (Cenomanian), Madagascar and France. The Axelrodichthys of the Lower Cretaceous frequented both brackish and coastal marine waters while the most recent species lived exclusively in fresh waters. The French specimens are the last known fresh water coelacanths. Most of the species of this genus reached 1 metre to 2 metres in length. Axelrodichthys was named in 1986 by John G. Maisey in honor of the American ichthyologist Herbert R. Axelrod.
Mawsoniidae is an extinct family of prehistoric coelacanth fishes which lived during the Triassic to Cretaceous periods. Members of the family are distinguished from their sister group, the Latimeriidae by the presence of ossified ribs, a coarse rugose texture on the dermatocranium and cheek bones, the absence of the suboperculum and the spiracular, and reduction or loss of the descending process of the supratemporal. Mawsoniids are known from North America, Europe, South America, Africa, Madagascar and Asia. Unlike Latimeriidae, which are exclusively marine, Mawsoniidae were also native to freshwater and brackish environments. Mawsoniids represent among the youngest known coelacanths, with the youngest known remains of the freshwater genus Axelrodichthys from France and an indeterminate marine species from Morocco being from the final stage of the Cretaceous, the Maastrichtian, roughly equivalent in age to the youngest known fossils of latimeriids. Species of Mawsonia and Trachymetopon are known to have exceeded 5 metres in length, making them among the largest known bony fish to have ever existed.
Brychaetus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine bonytongue fish known from the Late Cretaceous to the late Eocene of Europe, North America, and northern Africa.
Coelodus is an extinct genus of marine and possibly freshwater pycnodont fish. It contains only one definitive species, C. saturnusHeckel, 1854, from the Late Cretaceous of Slovenia. Other species from the Late Jurassic to the Eocene have also been attributed to this genus based on isolated dental elements, but their assignment to Coelodus is uncertain, and this genus likely represents a non-monophyletic wastebasket taxon. A potential diagnostic trait is a prearticular tooth row with three regular highly elongated teeth.
Cylindracanthus is an extinct, enigmatic genus of marine ray-finned fish with fossils known throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Africa from the Late Cretaceous to the late Eocene, with potential Oligocene records and a possible Miocene record also known. It is exclusively known from its distinctive partial remains, which are long cylindrical bony spines that are usually considered rostrum fragments, as well as some associated teeth. These spines are abundant & widespread throughout this timespan, and are useful indicators of a nearshore marine environment, but the taxonomic identity of the fish is still highly uncertain and debated.
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).
Cretalamna is a genus of extinct otodontid shark that lived from the latest Early Cretaceous to Eocene epoch. It is considered by many to be the ancestor of the largest sharks to have ever lived, such as Otodus angustidens, Otodus chubutensis, and Otodus megalodon.
Canardia is an extinct genus of lambeosaurine dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous Marnes d'Auzas Formation of Haute-Garonne department, in Occitanie region, southwestern France. The type species Canardia garonnensis was first described and named by Albert Prieto-Márquez, Fabio M. Dalla Vecchia, Rodrigo Gaete and Àngel Galobart in 2013. It is only known from juvenile specimens. The name of the genus comes from “canard”, the French word for “duck”, an allusion to the fact that this animal belongs to the hadrosaurids which are also known as duck-billed dinosaurs. The specific epithet garonnensis refers to the Haute-Garonne department where this dinosaur has been found. Although universally recognized as a lambeosaurine, its precise position within them is debated. Some authors consider it as a close relative of the genus Aralosaurus from Central Asia with which it would form the tribe Aralosaurini, while others include it in a more derived clade, the Arenysaurini in which all lambeosaurines from Europe and North Africa are placed. Canardia was one of the last non-avian dinosaurs and lived between 67,5 and 66 my on the former Ibero-Armorican Island, which included much of France and Spain.
The Oulad Abdoun Basin is a phosphate sedimentary basin located in Morocco, near the city of Khouribga. It is the largest in Morocco, comprising 44% of Morocco's phosphate reserves, and at least 26.8 billion tons of phosphate. It is also known as an important site for vertebrate fossils, with deposits ranging from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian) to the Eocene epoch (Ypresian), a period of about 25 million years.
Alcione is a genus of pterosaur from the Ouled Abdoun Basin of Morocco, dating back to the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period. Only one species, A. elainus, is known. This pterosaur lived in a marine environment alongside several other pterosaurs, including Simurghia and Barbaridactylus.
Simurghia is a genus of pterosaur from the Ouled Abdoun Basin of Morocco, a basin that dates to the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago. It was published in 2018 by paleontologists Nicholas R. Longrich, David M. Martill, and Brian Andres, along with two other pterosaurs from the same basin: Alcione and Barbaridactylus. The type and only species is S. robusta.
Tselfatiiformes is an extinct order of bony fishes from the infraclass Teleostei. The order represents the most important radiation of marine teleosts during the Cretaceous period. Fossils of tselfatiiforms are known from Europe, North America, central and northern South America, the Middle East and North Africa.
