Besano is a town and comune located in the province of Varese, in the Lombardy region of northern Italy.
Monte San Giorgio is a mountain and UNESCO World Heritage Site on the border between Switzerland and Italy. It is part of the Lugano Prealps, overlooking Lake Lugano in the Swiss Canton of Ticino.
Birgeria is a genus of carnivorous marine ray-finned fish from the Triassic period. Birgeria had a global distribution. Fossils were found in Madagascar, Spitsbergen, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, China, Russia, Canada and Nevada, United States. The oldest fossils are from Griesbachian aged beds of the Wordie Creek Formation of East Greenland.
Ticinepomis is an extinct genus of coelacanth lobe-finned fish which lived during the Middle Triassic period in what is now Switzerland. It contains two species, T. peyeri and T. ducanensis.
Eosaurichthys is an extinct saurichthyid ray-finned fish that lived during the late Permian epoch in what is now China. It closely resembles its daughter genus, Saurichthys, in both form and morphology.
Luganoia is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the Anisian and Ladinian ages of the Middle Triassic epoch. Fossils were recovered from the Besano Formation of Monte San Giorgio and Besano area and from the Zhuganpo Member of Guizhou, South China. It was also reported from the Ladinian of Spain.
Besania is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the Anisian and Ladinian ages of the Middle Triassic epoch in what is now southern/southeastern Switzerland and northern Italy. Fossils were recovered from the Besano Formation of Monte San Giorgio area and the Prosanto Formation of canton Graubünden, Switzerland.
Ctenognathichthys is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the early Ladinian stage of the Middle Triassic epoch. It was a small fish measuring 21 cm (8.3 in) long.
Habroichthys is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the early Ladinian stage of the Middle Triassic epoch, 242 to 232 million years ago. It has been found in Austria, China, Italy, Slovenia, and Switzerland. It was a small fish measuring 26 cm (10 in) long.
Heptanema is an extinct genus of prehistoric coelacanth from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian) of northern Italy and Switzerland.
Bobasatrania is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event. Fossils of Bobasatrania were found in beds of Changhsingian to Ladinian age. It was most speciose during the Early Triassic. The genus was named after the locality Bobasatrana in northeast Madagascar, from where the type species, Bobasatrana mahavavica, was described.
Colobodus is an extinct genus of Triassic bony fish of the family Colobodontidae and order Perleidiformes. Fossils have been found in Europe and China. It could reach body lengths of about 70 cm.
Psilichthys is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish from the Lower Cretaceous epoch of what is now Victoria, Australia. It has previously been referred to the family Birgeriidae; however it was removed from this family due to differences with Birgeria.
Eoeugnathus is an extinct genus of prehistoric ray-finned fish belonging to the Halecomorphi. Eoeugnathus existed during the Middle Triassic in what is now Italy, Spain, and Switzerland. The type species is Eoeugnathus megalepis (monotypy).
Sinosaurichthys is an extinct genus of saurichthyid ray-finned fish, which existed in southwestern China during the Middle Triassic. Fossils have been found in the Upper Member of the Guanling Formation of two localities: Yangjuan of Panxian County, Guizhou Province, and Dawazi of Luoping, Yunnan Province, China.
Helveticosauridae is an extinct family of basal marine reptiles known from the Middle Triassic of southern Switzerland and northern Italy.
Ohmdenia is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived from the Toarcian stage of the Early Jurassic period. Ohmdenia was first described in 1953 by Bernhard Hauff, based on a fossil found in the well-known Posidonia Shale in Holzmaden, Germany. For a long time this animal has been considered a close relative of Birgeria, a great predator typical of the Triassic period with an uncertain systematic position. Further studies have shown similarities with the Pachycormiformes, a group considered close to the origin of teleosts and also including giant forms and planktives. Some studies have erroneously indicated Ohmdenia as a synonym of Saurostomus, other studies have instead placed Ohmdenia as an important evolutionary passage between the basal pachicormiforms and the more derived planktivore pachicormiformes.
The Besano Formation is a geological formation in the southern Alps of northwestern Italy and southern Switzerland. This formation, a short but fossiliferous succession of dolomite and black shale, is famous for its preservation of Middle Triassic marine life including fish and aquatic reptiles. It is exposed in the vicinity of Monte San Giorgio and is among the formations responsible for the area being designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In Switzerland, it is also known as the Grenzbitumenzone.
The San Salvatore Dolomite, sometimes known as the Salvatore Dolomite or San Salvatore Formation, is a Middle Triassic geological formation in Switzerland and Italy. The primarily lithology is micritic dolomite with a high proportion of algal mounds (stromatolites). It corresponds to a thick warm-water carbonate platform on the northern edge of an island in what is now the Po Plain. This formation and its local equivalents are common in the hills around Lake Maggiore, Varese, and Lugano, preserving fossils of marine invertebrates such as ammonoids, gastropods, and bivalves. At its southernmost extent on Monte San Giorgio, only the lower part of the San Salvatore Dolomite is preserved. The middle and upper parts are replaced by the Besano Formation, San Giorgio Dolomite, and Meride Limestone, which were deposited in a deeper and more anoxic basin between carbonate platforms.
Brazilichthys is an extinct genus of prehistoric ray-finned fish that lived during the Cisuralian epoch in what is now Maranhão, Brazil. The type and only species, B. macrognathus, is known from a single skull, which was recovered from the Pedra de Fogo Formation.
