Hyneria Temporal range: | |
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Life restoration of H. lindae | |
Skull reconstruction of H. udlezinye | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Sarcopterygii |
Clade: | Tetrapodomorpha |
Clade: | Eotetrapodiformes |
Family: | † Tristichopteridae |
Genus: | † Hyneria Thomson, 1968 |
Type species | |
†Hyneria lindae Thomson, 1968 | |
Other species | |
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Hyneria is a genus of large prehistoric predatory lobe-finned fish which lived in fresh water during the Famennian stage of the Devonian period. [1] [2]
The genus name Hyneria is a reference to the village of Hyner, Pennsylvania, near where the first specimen was found. The species epithet H. lindae is derived from the name of the wife of Keith Stewart Thomson, who described this fish. [3]
Hyneria was a large fish. H. lindae is estimated around 2.5–3 metres (8.2–9.8 ft) in total length. [3] [4] An isolated cleithrum AM 6545 likely belongs to an individual of at least 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) in length. [2] The largest complete jaw reaches 38 centimetres (15 in), but there is much larger fragment possibly from a jaw about twice that length, although that specimen may belong to a rhizodont instead. [5] Assuming this jaw fragment does pertain to Hyneria, and assuming proportions similar to more complete tristichopterids, it suggests H. lindae could possibly reach lengths up to 3.5 metres (11 ft). [6] A second species, H. udlezinye, was once estimated as having a length of between 2 and 4 metres (6.6 and 13.1 ft) before being described. [7] However, the species description estimates that the largest specimen belongs to an animal about 3 metres (9.8 ft). [2] Its skull had heavy, ornamented dermal bones and its lower jaw was relatively long and shallow. The teeth were stout, with those of the premaxilla forming fangs upwards of 5 cm (2 in). [3] [1] Its body was covered by cycloid scales. [1] [8] It had large sensory canals to aid in detection of possible prey, as the freshwater environment it inhabited likely was murky and had low visibility. [8] Adult individuals retained juvenile features (i.e. partially unossified skeletons), suggesting that they were likely neotenic. [9]
The original fossils came from two localities in Pennsylvania, United States, one found between the villages of North Bend and Hyner and another near Emporium. They consisted of a disarticulated partial skull and fragments of the shoulder girdle. [3] The fossils were found in the Catskill Formation of the Red Hill Shale, dating to the upper Devonian. [1] These were the only remains known until 1993 when a renewed collecting effort discovered abundant new material. [1] Hyneria is considered the largest and most common lobe-finned fish found in the Red Hill Shale. [10] In February 2023 a second species of Hyneria, H. udlezinye, was named from remains discovered in the Waterloo Farm lagerstätte. These remains include the skull and shoulder girdle. [2]
Dunkleosteus is an extinct genus of large arthrodire ("jointed-neck") fish that existed during the Late Devonian period, about 382–358 million years ago. It was a pelagic fish inhabiting open waters, and one of the first vertebrate apex predators of any ecosystem.
Eusthenopteron is a genus of prehistoric sarcopterygian fish known from several species that lived during the Late Devonian period, about 385 million years ago. It has attained an iconic status from its close relationship to tetrapods. Early depictions of animals of this genus show them emerging onto land, but paleontologists now think that eusthenopteron species were strictly aquatic animals, though this is not completely known.
Hynerpeton is an extinct genus of early four-limbed vertebrate that lived in the rivers and ponds of Pennsylvania during the Late Devonian period, around 365 to 363 million years ago. The only known species of Hynerpeton is H. bassetti, named after the describer's grandfather, city planner Edward Bassett. Hynerpeton is known for being the first Devonian four-limbed vertebrate discovered in the United States, as well as possibly being one of the first to have lost internal (fish-like) gills.
Bothriolepis was a widespread, abundant and diverse genus of antiarch placoderms that lived during the Middle to Late Devonian period of the Paleozoic Era. Historically, Bothriolepis resided in an array of paleo-environments spread across every paleocontinent, including near shore marine and freshwater settings. Most species of Bothriolepis were characterized as relatively small, benthic, freshwater detritivores, averaging around 30 centimetres (12 in) in length. However, the largest species, B. rex, had an estimated bodylength of 170 centimetres (67 in). Although expansive with over 60 species found worldwide, comparatively Bothriolepis is not unusually more diverse than most modern bottom dwelling species around today.
Tristichopterids (Tristichopteridae) were a diverse and successful group of fish-like tetrapodomorphs living throughout the Middle and Late Devonian. They first appeared in the Eifelian stage of the Middle Devonian. Within the group sizes ranged from a few tens of centimeters (Tristichopterus) to several meters.
The Fram Formation is an Upper Devonian (Frasnian) sequence of rock strata on Ellesmere Island that came into prominence in 2006 with the discovery in its rocks of examples of the transitional fossil, Tiktaalik, a sarcopterygian or lobe-finned fish showing many tetrapod characteristics. Fossils of Laccognathus embryi, a porolepiform lobe-finned fish, and Qikiqtania, a close relative of Tiktaalik, were also found in the formation. The Fram Formation is a Middle to Upper Devonian clastic wedge forming an extensive continental facies consisting of sediments derived from deposits laid down in braided stream systems that formed some 375 million years ago, at a time when the North American craton ("Laurentia") was straddling the equator.
Mandageria fairfaxi is an extinct lobe-finned fish that lived during the Late Devonian period. It is related to the much larger Hyneria; although Mandageria was smaller, likely hunted in a similar manner.
Onychodus is a genus of prehistoric lobe-finned fish which lived during the Devonian Period. It is one of the best known of the group of onychodontiform fishes. Scattered fossil teeth of Onychodus were first described from Ohio in 1857 by John Strong Newberry. Other species were found in Australia, England, Norway and Germany showing that it had a widespread range.
Edward B. 'Ted' Daeschler is an American vertebrate paleontologist and Associate Curator and Chair of Vertebrate Biology at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. He is a specialist in fish paleontology, especially in the Late Devonian, and in the development of the first limbed vertebrates. He is the discoverer of the transitional fossil tetrapod Hynerpeton bassetti, and a Devonian fish-like specimen of Sauripterus taylori with fingerlike appendages, and was also part of a team of researchers that discovered the transitional fossil Tiktaalik.
Eusthenodon is an extinct genus of tristichopterid tetrapodomorphs from the Late Devonian period, ranging between 383 and 359 million years ago. They are well known for being a cosmopolitan genus with remains being recovered from East Greenland, Australia, Central Russia, South Africa, Pennsylvania, and Belgium. Compared to the other closely related genera of the Tristichopteridae clade, Eusthenodon was one of the largest lobe-finned fishes and among the most derived tristichopterids alongside its close relatives Cabonnichthys and Mandageria.
Megalichthys is a genus of prehistoric lobe-finned fish which lived during the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. It is the type genus of the family Megalichthyidae. The type species is M. hibberti. The species M. mullisoni, named for fossil preparator C Frederick Mullison, is known from the Catskill Formation of Pennsylvania.
Tristichopterus, with a maximum length of sixty centimetres, is the smallest genus in the family of prehistoric lobe-finned fish, Tristichopteridae that was believed to have originated in the north and dispersed throughout the course of the Upper Devonian into Gondwana. Tristichopterus currently has only one named species, first described by Egerton in 1861. The Tristichopterus node is thought to have originated during the Givetian part of the Devonian. Tristichopterus was thought by Egerton to be unique for its time period as a fish with ossified vertebral centers, breaking the persistent notochord rule of most Devonian fish but this was later reinspected and shown to be only partial ossification by Dr. R. H. Traquair. Tristichopterus alatus closely resembles Eusthenopteron and this sparked some debate after its discovery as to whether it was a separate taxon.
Laccognathus is an extinct genus of amphibious lobe-finned fish from Europe and North America. They existed from the Middle Devonian to the Late Devonian. The name comes from Greek for 'pitted jaw'.
Langlieria is a genus of prehistoric sarcopterygian, from the end of the Devonian period (Famennian). It was discovered in Belgium and Pennsylvania.
Edenopteron is a genus of large tristichopterid fish from the Late Devonian (Famennian) of what is now southeastern Australia. It is known from a single specimen of a single species, E. keithcrooki, described in 2013.
Serenichthys kowiensis is a fossil species of coelacanth described in 2015 from near Grahamstown in South Africa.
Hyner is an unincorporated community which is located in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The community is located along the West Branch Susquehanna River and Pennsylvania Route 120 5.6 miles (9.0 km) east of Renovo.
The Waterloo Farm lagerstätte is a Famennian lagerstätte in South Africa that constitutes the only known record of a near-polar Devonian coastal ecosystem.
Isityumzi mlomomde is fossil lungfish described from fragmentary remains including one complete parasphenoid, tooth plates fragments and scales from the Late Devonian Sarcopterygians. It represents the only record of Late Devonian lungfish remains from western Gondwana.
The Mandagery Sandstone is a Late Devonian geological formation in New South Wales, Australia. It is one of several famed Australian lagerstätten, with thousands of exceptional fish fossils found at a site near the town of Canowindra.