| Euzaphlegidae | |
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| Family: | Euzaphlegidae Danil'chenko, 1960 |
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| Euzaphleges | |
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Euzaphlegidae is a family of extinct escolar-like fish closely related to the snake mackerels. Fossils of euzaphlegids are found from Paleocene to Late Miocene-aged marine strata of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains, [2] India, Iran, Turkmenistan, Italy, [1] and Southern California. [3]
In life, the Euzaphlegidae would have borne a superficial resemblance to mackerels or wahoo, leading some researchers to place them within the Scombridae or Cybiidae, respectively. [3] However, X-ray analysis of the bone structure strongly suggests a relationship with the snake-mackerels, with some experts placing them within the Gempylidae. [4]
The sharp teeth and mackerel-like forms strongly suggest that the euzaphlegids were predators, verified by the remains of numerous extinct deep sea smelt, Bathylagus , and herring, Xyne grex , found within the stomachs of several specimens of Thyrsocles and Euzaphleges . [3] Researcher Lore Rose David proposed that, because the Euzaphlegidae were comparatively less adapted to a pelagic lifestyle like the gempylids, but had slender skeletons suggesting of a deep-water lifestyle, the Euzaphlegidae lived in deep, offshore communities near the ocean floor, where they preyed on other fish. [3] David also suggested that the Euzaphlegidae presence in Miocene California excluded the gempylids from establishing themselves there at the time, while the presence of scombrids in shallower water ecosystems prevented the Euzaphlegidae from establishing themselves in shallow water. [3]
Originally, the family Euzaphlegidae (synonym=Zaphlegidae) originally described containing only the three to four genera from Late Miocene Southern California strata. Later, the genus Palimphyes , whose 10 species are found in Paleogene Tethys and Paratethys strata from the Swiss Alps, the Carpathians, Caucasus, Iran, India and Turkmenistan, [1] was placed within Euzaphlegidae as the subfamily Dipterichthyinae (named after a junior synonym, Dipterichthys). Recently, a new genus, Veronaphleges , was found and described from Monte Bolca, representing one of the very few mesopelagic fish known from that lagerstätte. Veronaphleges apparently is a basal form that can not be grouped in either subfamily. [1]
The family originates in the Paratethys during the Paleocene, and becomes widespread throughout the Tethys and Paratethys Oceans, until the Late Oligocene, when the genus Palimphyes disappears from the fossil record. Euzaphlegids would survive in deep water habitats of what is now Southern California, where they became mesopelagic predators ecologically similar to their relatives, the snake mackerels and escolars.
During the time of the Late Miocene, Southern California had a very warm, tropical climate. The transition from Late Miocene to Early Pliocene saw the climate cool, and this cooling event drove the surviving Euzaphlegidae and several other (locally) endemic fish species, such as the manefish Chalcidichthys and the spinyfin Absalomichthys , into extinction. [3] This cooling event, coupled with the survival of the scombrids in southern Californian marine ecosystems, also helped prevent gempylids from replacing the Euzaphlegidae during the Pliocene or Pleistocene. [3]
The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words μείων and καινός and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene is preceded by the Oligocene and is followed by the Pliocene.
The Tethys OceanTEETH-iss, TETH-, also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean during much of the Mesozoic Era and early Cenozoic Era, located between the ancient continents of Gondwana and Laurasia, before the opening of the Indian and Atlantic oceans during the Cretaceous Period.
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Euzaphleges longurio is an extinct, superficially mackerel-like fish related to the escolar and snake mackerels. Euzaphleges was found off the coast of what is now California during the late Miocene. It was smaller than the very similar Thyrsocles and longer and more slender than Zaphlegulus, which also lived at the same time. It was much longer than the poorly known Trossulus.
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Palimphyes is an extinct genus of prehistoric euzaphlegid bony fish related to the escolars and snake mackerels. The various species lived as deepwater mesopelagic predators in the Tethys and Paratethys oceans, with fossils of ten species found in Paleocene to Oligocene strata of the Swiss Alps, the Carpathian and Caucasus Mountains, Iran, India, and Turkmenistan.
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