Megalopidae

Megalopidae Temporal range: Early Cretaceous–present [1] PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Atlantic tarpon
Fossil specimen of Sedenhorstia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Elopiformes
Family:	Megalopidae D. S. Jordan, 1923

Megalopidae is an ancient family of ray-finned fish, one of two living members of the order Elopiformes. ^[2] It contains a single living genus ( Megalops , the tarpons) with two species, and several extinct genera dating back to the Early Cretaceous. They likely diverged from their closest relatives, the Elopidae, during the Late Jurassic. ^[1]

Taxonomy

The following genera belong to this family: ^{[1] [3]}

• Genus Megalops Lacépède , 1803 (=†Starrias Jordan, 1925) - Late Cretaceous (Campanian) ^[4] or Late Oligocene ^[5] to present

• Genus † Arratiaelops Taverne, 1999 - Early Cretaceous (Valanginian) of Belgium & England ^[6]
• Genus † Brouweria de Beaufort, 1926 - Early Miocene of Sulawesi, Indonesia ^[7]
• Genus † Elopoides Wenz, 1965 - Early Cretaceous (Albian) of France
• Genus † Paratarpon Bardack, 1970 - Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of Alberta, Canada
• Genus † Promegalops Casier, 1966 - Early Eocene of England
• Genus † Protarpon Forey, 1973 - Late Paleocene to Early Eocene of Morocco & England ^[3]
• Genus † Sedenhorstia White & Moy -Thomas , 1941 - Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian to Campanian) of Lebanon and Germany

References

1. Near, Thomas J.; Thacker, Christine E. (18 April 2024). "Phylogenetic Classification of Living and Fossil Ray-Finned Fishes (Actinopterygii)". Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. 65 (1): 101. Bibcode:2024BPMNH..65..101N. doi:10.3374/014.065.0101. ISSN   0079-032X.
2. Fricke, R.; Eschmeyer, W. N.; Van der Laan, R. (2025). "ESCHMEYER'S CATALOG OF FISHES: CLASSIFICATION". California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
3. Khalloufi, Bouziane; El Houssaini Darif, Khadija; Jourani, Essaid; Khaldoune, Fatima; Jalil, Nour-Eddine (21 October 2019). "A new Palaeocene Megalopidae (Teleostei, Elopomorpha) from the phosphate basins of Morocco". Historical Biology. 31 (9): 1256–1265. Bibcode:2019HBio...31.1256K. doi:10.1080/08912963.2018.1443327. ISSN   0891-2963.
4. STRINGER, GARY L.; SCHWARZHANS, WERNER; PHILLIPS, GEORGE; LAMBERT, ROGER (5 February 2020). "Highly Diversified Late Cretaceous Fish Assemblage Revealed by Otoliths (Ripley Formation and Owl Creek Formation, Northeast Mississippi, Usa)". Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia. 126 (1): Vol. 126 No 1 (2020). doi:10.13130/2039-4942/13013.
5. "PBDB Taxon". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
6. Taverne, Louis (1999). "Ostéologie et position systématique d'Arratielops vectensis gen. nov., téléostéen élopiforme du Wealdien d'Angleterre et de Belgique". Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique - Bulletin van het Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen. 69: 77–96.
7. Khalloufi, Bouziane; El Houssaini Darif, Khadija; Jourani, Essaid; Khaldoune, Fatima; Jalil, Nour-Eddine (25 February 2018). "A new Palaeocene Megalopidae (Teleostei, Elopomorpha) from the phosphate basins of Morocco" . Historical Biology: 1–10. Bibcode:2019HBio...31.1256K. doi:10.1080/08912963.2018.1443327. ISSN   0891-2963.