Osteoglossidae is a family of large-sized freshwater fish, which includes the arowanas. They are commonly known as bonytongues. The family has been regarded as containing two extant subfamilies Arapaiminae and Osteoglossinae, with a total of five living genera, but these are regarded as valid families in Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes The extinct Phareodontinae are known from worldwide during the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene; they are generally considered to be crown group osteoglossids that are more closely related to one of the extant osteoglossid subfamilies than the other, though their exact position varies.
The Molidae comprise the family of the molas or ocean sunfishes, unusual fish whose bodies come to an end just behind the dorsal and anal fins, giving them a "half-fish" appearance. They are also the largest of the ray-finned bony fish, with the southern sunfish, Mola alexandrini, recorded at 4.6 m (15 ft) in length and 2,744 kg (6,049 lb) in weight.
The Congridae are the family of conger and garden eels. Congers are valuable and often large food fishes, while garden eels live in colonies, all protruding from the sea floor after the manner of plants in a garden. The family includes over 220 species in 32 genera.
Knightia is an extinct genus of clupeid bony fish that lived in the freshwater lakes and rivers of North America and Asia during the Eocene epoch. The genus was erected by David Starr Jordan in 1907, in honor of the late University of Wyoming professor Wilbur Clinton Knight, "an indefatigable student of the paleontology of the Rocky Mountains." It is the official state fossil of Wyoming, and the most commonly excavated fossil fish in the world.
The Carangidae are a family of ray-finned fish that includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, runners, trevallies, and scads. It is the largest of the six families included within the order Carangiformes. Some authorities classify it as the only family within that order but molecular and anatomical studies indicate that there is a close relationship between this family and the five former Perciform families which make up the Carangiformes.
The yellowtail amberjack, yellowtail kingfish, hiramasa or great amberjack is a large fish found in the Southern Ocean. Although previously thought to be found in all oceans and seas, recent genetic analysis restricts S. lalandi proper to the Southern Hemisphere waters. However, they are found in Northern Hemisphere waters during certain times of the year. The fish was given its name by Monsieur de Lalande, a naturalist who first informed zoologist Achille Valenciennes of the existence of this species. His reason for the use of the word Seriola to name the fish is uncertain, but the second word lalandi was derived from his surname.
Archaeus is an extinct genus of marine jackfish from the Paleogene of Europe, where it inhabited the former Tethys Ocean. The oldest species, A. oblongus is from the early Ypresian epoch of Eocene Turkmenistan, and the last species, A. glarisianus and A. solus, are from the early to middle Rupelian, of the Matt Formation of Canton Glarus, Switzerland and the Pshekha Formation of North Caucasus, Russia.
Oplegnathus is currently the sole recognized genus in the knifejaw family (Oplegnathidae) of marine centrarchiform ray-finned fishes. The largest, the Cape knifejaw, can reach a maximum length around 90 cm (35 in). Knifejaws have teeth fused into a parrot-like beak in adulthood. They feed on barnacles and mollusks, and are fished commercially. They are native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Avitoluvarus is a genus of extinct louvar that lived in the Peri-Tethys Sea during the early Paleogene. The first specimens were found from the Danata Formation Lagerstätten, of the Ypresian age of Turkmenistan, where they were originally thought to be smaller or juvenile individuals of the true louvar, Luvarus necopinatus. These specimens were later reexamined, and determined to be a separate genus comprising two species.
Cylindracanthus is an extinct, enigmatic genus of marine ray-finned fish with fossils known throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Africa from the Late Cretaceous to the late Eocene, with potential Oligocene records and a possible Miocene record also known. It is exclusively known from its distinctive partial remains, which are long cylindrical bony spines that are usually considered rostrum fragments, as well as some associated teeth. These spines are abundant & widespread throughout this timespan, and are useful indicators of a nearshore marine environment, but the taxonomic identity of the fish is still highly uncertain and debated.
Seriola is a genus of ray-finned fish, with many species commonly known as amberjacks. Nine extant species are currently recognized, although these were formerly split into many more. Also, several species are currently placed in several other genera of the Carangidae that were originally described under Seriola. They are a large, carnivorous finfish popularly known for the firm texture and rich flavour of their flesh, which make them an ideal fish for aquaculture. Because specimens caught can weigh up to 100 kg (220 lb), and are powerful swimmers and hunters, they are also highly prized by sport fisherman.
Palimphyes is an extinct genus of marine ray-finned fish known from the Paleogene period. It was a euzaphlegid, an extinct family of scombroid fish related to the escolars and snake mackerels.
The Catostomidae are the suckers of the order Cypriniformes, with about 78 species in this family of freshwater fishes. The Catostomidae are almost exclusively native to North America. The only exceptions are Catostomus catostomus, found in both North America and Russia, and Myxocyprinus asiaticus found only in China. In the Ozarks they are a common food fish and a festival is held each year to celebrate them. The bigmouth buffalo, Ictiobus cyprinellus, can reach an age up to 127 years, making it the oldest known freshwater teleost by more than 50 years.
Archiinocellia is an extinct genus of snakefly in the family Raphidiidae known from Eocene fossils found in western North America. The genus contains two species, the older Archiinocellia oligoneura and the younger Archiinocellia protomaculata. The type species is of Ypresian age and from the Horsefly Shales of British Columbia, while the younger species from the Lutetian Green River Formation in Colorado. Archiinocellia protomaculata was first described as Agulla protomaculata, and later moved to Archiinocellia.
The Allenby formation is a sedimentary rock formation in British Columbia which was deposited during the Ypresian stage of the Early Eocene. It consists of conglomerates, sandstones with interbedded shales and coal. The shales contain an abundance of insect, fish and plant fossils known from 1877 and onward, while the Princeton Chert was first indented in the 1950s and is known from anatomically preserved plants.
The Danata Formation is an earliest Eocene to Middle Eocene sedimentary succession located in Turkmenistan. It is mostly famous for its fish-bearing horizons (Ichthyofauna). The formation for example crops out in the Kopet Dag mountain range in the border region of Turkmenistan and Iran. It was deposited in a far northeastern arm of the Tethys Sea.
The paleofauna of the Eocene Okanagan Highlands consists of Early Eocene arthropods, vertebrates, plus rare nematodes and molluscs found in geological formations of the northwestern North American Eocene Okanagan Highlands. The highlands lake bed series' as a whole are considered one of the great Canadian Lagerstätten. The paleofauna represents that of a late Ypresian upland temperate ecosystem immediately after the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum, and before the increased cooling of the middle and late Eocene to Oligocene. The fossiliferous deposits of the region were noted as early as 1873, with small amounts of systematic work happening in the 1880-90s on British Columbian sites, and 1920-30s for Washington sites. Focus and more detailed descriptive work on the Okanagan Highlands site started in the last 1970's. Most of the highlands sites are preserved as compression-impression fossils in "shales", but also includes a rare permineralized biota and an amber biota.
Phocavis is an extinct genus of flightless seabird, belonging to the family Plotopteridae, and distantly related with modern cormorants. Its fossils, found in the Keasey Formation in Oregon, are dated from the Late Eocene.
Anenchelum is an extinct genus of cutlassfish known from the early Eocene to the late Miocene. Several species are known that inhabited the northwestern Tethys and later Paratethys region, centered around east-central Europe and west Asia. This genus was synonymized with the extant Lepidopus for a time before being revived as a distinct genus in 1995.
Seriola prisca is an extinct species of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish from the Eocene. Complete fossil specimens are known from the famous Early Eocene-aged Monte Bolca site of Italy.
