Eriquius

Eriquius Temporal range: Upper Miocene [1] PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Blenniiformes
Family:	Embiotocidae
Genus:	† Eriquius Jordan, 1924
Species:	†E. plectrodes
Binomial name
†Eriquius plectrodes Jordan, 1924

Eriquius is an extinct genus of prehistoric surfperch that lived along the coast of western North America during the Upper Miocene subepoch. It contains a single species, E. plectrodes from the Tortonian-aged diatomite beds of the Monterey Formation in California, US. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

It is the only known fossil genus of the Embiotocidae in the fossil record, alongside the much younger freshwater species Damalichthys saratogensis . It has also been suggested that it may belong to the butterfish instead, but most recent studies have retained it as a surfperch. ^{[4] [5]} It has been suggested that the time period during which it occurred was one of great diversification for the surfperches. ^[6]

See also

• Paleontology portal
• Fish portal

• Prehistoric fish
• List of prehistoric bony fish

References

1. Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology. 364: 560. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2009-02-27.
2. "PBDB Taxon". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2025-02-20.
3. California Academy of Sciences (1890). Occasional papers of the California Academy of Sciences. California Academy of Sciences. San Francisco : California Academy of Sciences.
4. Casteel, Richard W. (1978). "Damalichthys saratogensis: A New Freshwater Fish (Embiotocidae) from the Plio-Pleistocene (Blancan) of California". Copeia. 1978 (2): 293–298. doi:10.2307/1443566. ISSN   0045-8511.
5. Bannikov, A. F. (2021-11-01). "A New Species of Stromateid Fish (Perciformes, Stromateoidei) of the Genus Pinichthys from the Tarkhanian (Lowermost Middle Miocene) of the Northwestern Caucasus". Paleontological Journal. 55 (6): 671–677. doi:10.1134/S0031030121060046. ISSN   1555-6174.
6. Longo, Gary; Bernardi, Giacomo (2015-07-01). "The evolutionary history of the embiotocid surfperch radiation based on genome-wide RAD sequence data". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 88: 55–63. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2015.03.027. ISSN   1055-7903.