Musperia

Musperia Temporal range: ?early-mid Eocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Osteoglossiformes
Family:	Osteoglossidae
Subfamily:	† Phareodontinae
Genus:	† Musperia Sanders, 1934
Species:	†M. radiata
Binomial name
†Musperia radiata (Heer, 1874)

Musperia is a genus of fossil bonytongue fish found in the Sangkarewang Formation, Sumatra, Indonesia. Reaching almost 60 cm in length, it lived in an Early Eocene-aged freshwater environment. It had a deep body profile similar to related taxa such as Phareodus . ^{[1] [2]}

Little is known about this genus, as most of the original specimens were destroyed during World War II, with only two very small specimens (approx. 10 cm) left that were discovered later. One among these two specimens still retains its head, albeit severely crushed and displaced. ^{[1] [2]}

References

1. Taverna, L. (31 October 2009). "New insights on the osteology and taxonomy of the osteoglossid fishes Phareodus, Brychaetus and Musperia (Teleostei, Osteoglossomorpha)". Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belqique, Sciences de la Terre. 79: 175–190 – via ResearchGate.
2. Capobianco, Alessio; Zouhri, Samir; Friedman, Matt (2024-12-28). "A long-snouted marine bonytongue (Teleostei: Osteoglossidae) from the early Eocene of Morocco and the phylogenetic affinities of marine osteoglossids". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 203 (1). doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae015. ISSN   0024-4082.