Tanaocrossus

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Tanaocrossus
Temporal range: Carnian–Rhaetian
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Scanilepiformes
Genus: Tanaocrossus
Schaeffer, 1967
Species:
T. kalliokoskii
Binomial name
Tanaocrossus kalliokoskii
Schaeffer, 1967

Tanaocrossus (Ancient Greek for "outstretched fringe", referring to its distinctive dorsal fin) is an extinct genus of primitive freshwater ray-finned fish that inhabited southwestern and eastern North America during the Late Triassic period. It contains a single known species, T. kalliokoskii, known from the United States, with indeterminate species also known. [1] [2]

It is primarily known from the Norian to Rhaetian of the Chinle Formation of Colorado and Utah. [3] [4] [5] Indeterminate remains are known from the Dockum Group of Texas and New Mexico (Bull Canyon Formation). [3] [6] A single fragmentary but distinctive fossilized fin from the earlier Carnian-aged Doswell Formation of Virginia, which shares the genus's distinctive fin rays, was long the only record from the eastern United States, but a partial specimen was also later identified from the Manassas Sandstone. [4] [6] [7]

Morphologically, it can be easily distinguished from other co-occurring fishes by its highly elongated dorsal fin that stretches across its body. Its taxonomic affiliations have long been enigmatic since its description due to its unusual morphology. [2] [7] [4] More recent studies have found it to be a scanilepiform, an enigmatic order of fish which were later found to most likely be basal cladistians, which would make it a distant relative of modern bichirs. [8] [9] A 2008 study questioned this assignment and instead reclassified it to the Perleidiformes, but this has been disputed by later studies. [10] [8] [11]

It was likely a slow-moving fish that inhabited quiet waters, with its dorsal fin allowing for undulation while swimming. [2]

Related Research Articles

<i>Perleidus</i> Extinct genus of fishes

Perleidus is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish from the Triassic period. Fossils have been found in the Middle Triassic of Italy, Switzerland, and China. The inclusion of Early Triassic species in the genus Perleidus was questioned.

<i>Chinlea</i> Extinct genus of coelacanths

Chinlea is an extinct genus of late Triassic Mawsoniid coelacanth fish found in and named after the Chinle Formation that crops out in the southwestern states of Arizona and New Mexico. The word “Chinle” comes from the Navajo word meaning "flowing out", referencing the location where water flows out of the Canyon de Chelly. They were also possibly found in the Dockum Group.

<i>Birgeria</i> Extinct genus of fishes

Birgeria is a genus of carnivorous marine ray-finned fish from the Triassic period. Birgeria had a global distribution, with fossil known from 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. Birgeria existed throughout the entire Triassic period, from the very beginning just after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, up to the very end with its extinction during the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction.

Aetheolepis is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish which lived in freshwater environments in what is now Western Australia and New South Wales during the Jurassic period. It contains one species, A. mirabilis. Aetheolepis was previously thought to be an archaeomaenid, until a 2016 study instead recovered it as a member of the family Dapediidae. Like other dapediids, it had a deep, discoid-shaped body. Fossils of A. mirabilis have been found in the Talbragar River fossil beds of New South Wales and the Colalura Sandstone of Western Australia. It was named by Arthur Smith Woodward in 1865 along with other Talbragar fish.

<i>Pteronisculus</i> Extinct genus of ray-finned fishes

Pteronisculus is an extinct genus of prehistoric ray-finned fish that lived during the Early Triassic and Middle Triassic epochs of the Triassic period worldwide.

<i>Asialepidotus</i> Extinct genus of fishes

Asialepidotus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish that lived during the Ladinian stage of the Middle Triassic epoch. It contains a single species, A. shingyiensis, from Guizhou, China.

Cosmoptychius is an extinct genus of freshwater and estuarine ray-finned fish that lived during the Mississippian epoch. It contains a single species, C. striatus from the Visean of Scotland. It has a wide stratigraphic range in the Wardie Shale, with many specimens known.

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.

<i>Ctenognathichthys</i> Extinct genus of fishes

Ctenognathichthys is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish that lived during the Middle Triassic epoch of Europe, in the former Tethys Ocean.

<i>Cyranorhis</i> Extinct genus of fishes

Cyranorhis is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish that lived during the Serpukhovian age of the Carboniferous period. One species is known, C. bergeraci in the Bear Gulch Limestone what is now Montana, United States. It is named after French novelist Cyrano de Bergerac.

<i>Dandya ovalis</i> Extinct genus of ray-finned fishes

Dandya is an extinct genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Dapediidae. It contains one species, D. ovalis. It is known from the Late Triassic-aged Zorzino Limestone of Lombardy, northern Italy and the Seefeld Formation of Austria.

<i>Hemicalypterus</i> Extinct genus of ray-finned fishes

Hemicalypterus is an extinct genus of prehistoric ray-finned fish that lived during the late Triassic period. It contains a single species, Hemicalypterus weiri. Fossils have been collected in the southwestern United States, including Utah and New Mexico. Hemicalypterus belonged to the family Dapediidae, and like other members of its family, it was a deep-bodied fish with a covering of thick ganoid scales. It differed from other dapediids in lacking scales on the posterior part of the body, and in possessing unusual, multicuspid teeth. These teeth were similar to those of modern-day herbivorous fish, which indicates that Hemicalypterus may have been a herbivore as well.

The Chinle Formation is an extensive geological unit in the southwestern United States, preserving a very diverse fauna of Late Triassic animals and plants. This is a list of fossilized organisms recovered from the formation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cladistia</span> Clade of ray-finned fishes

Cladistia is a clade of bony fishes whose only living members are the bichirs of tropical Africa. Their major synapomorphies are a heterocercal tail in which the dorsal fin has independent rays, and a posteriorly elongated parasphenoid.

Beishanichthys is an extinct genus of freshwater ray-finned fish which existed in Gansu Province, China during the Olenekian age of the early Triassic period. It contains a single species, B. brevicaudalis, first named by Guang-Hui Xu, Ke-Qin Gao in 2011 based on fossils from the Lower Triassic lake deposits exposed in Beishan area. It is considered a scanilepiform, a group of early cladistians related to the modern bichirs, although Beishanichthys was not incorporated into the analyses that found this phylogenetic placement among the cladistians.

The Colorado City Formation is a Late Triassic geologic formation in the Dockum Group of Texas, United States. It has previously been known as the Iatan Member, Colorado City Member or 'Pre-Tecovas Horizon'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redfieldiiformes</span> Extinct order of ray-finned fishes

Redfieldiiformes is an extinct order of ray-finned fish (actinopterygians) which lived from the Early Triassic to Early Jurassic. Redfieldiiforms were fairly typical Triassic fish in overall anatomy. They had a fusiform body shape with thick, ganoine-covered scales. The dorsal and anal fins were large, positioned opposite from each other, and shifted back, close to the tail. The caudal fin was hemiheterocercal, with the vertebral column and body scales extending into an upper lobe equal in size and shape to the lower lobe. They also had several characteristic skeletal traits, such as a hatchet-shaped preopercle, a series of fulcra fringing the fins, a reduced number of branchiostegal rays, and a snout ornamented with tubercles.

Turseodus is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish found in Late Triassic freshwater sediments of the United States. Two species have been described, T. acutus from the Lockatong Formation of Pennsylvania, and T. dolorensis from the Chinle Formation of Colorado.

<i>Redfieldius</i> Extinct genus of fishes

Redfieldius is an extinct genus of freshwater ray-finned fish that inhabited eastern North America during the Early Jurassic period. It contains a single species, R. gracilis, known from the Hettangian to the Sinemurian of the northeastern United States. It is the type genus and was the last surviving member of the order Redfieldiiformes, which was widespread and diverse throughout the preceding Triassic period. It is notable for representing possibly the first fossil bony fish collected from North America, with a specimen from Middletown collected in 1816 by Benjamin Silliman.

Cionichthys is an extinct genus of freshwater ray-finned fish that inhabited southwestern and eastern North America during the Late Triassic period. It was a member of the Redfieldiiformes, an order of fishes widespread throughout freshwater habitats at this time, especially in North America.

References

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  3. 1 2 Heckert, Andrew B.; Lucas, Spencer G. (2005). Vertebrate Paleontology in Arizona: Bulletin 29. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.
  4. 1 2 3 Schaeffer, Bobb; McDonald, Nicholas G. (1978). "Redfieldiid fishes from the Triassic-Liassic Newark Supergroup of eastern North America. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 159, article 4". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 159 (4): 131–173.
  5. Gibson, Sarah Z. (2016-09-22). Schubert, Michael (ed.). "Redescription and Phylogenetic Placement of †Hemicalypterus weiri Schaeffer, 1967 (Actinopterygii, Neopterygii) from the Triassic Chinle Formation, Southwestern United States: New Insights into Morphology, Ecological Niche, and Phylogeny". PLOS ONE. 11 (9): e0163657. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0163657 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   5033578 . PMID   27657923.
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  8. 1 2 Xu, Guang-Hui; Gao, Ke-Qin (2011). "A new scanilepiform from the Lower Triassic of northern Gansu Province, China, and phylogenetic relationships of non-teleostean Actinopterygii: EARLY TRIASSIC SCANILEPIFORM FROM CHINA". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (3): 595–612. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2010.00645.x.
  9. Giles, Sam; Xu, Guang-Hui; Near, Thomas J.; Friedman, Matt (2017). "Early members of 'living fossil' lineage imply later origin of modern ray-finned fishes". Nature. 549 (7671): 265–268. doi:10.1038/nature23654. ISSN   1476-4687.
  10. Milner, Andrew; Spears, Sarah; Olsen, Paul (2008). "NEW SPECIMENS OF TANAOCROSSUS (ACTINOPTERYGII, PERLEIDIFORMES) FROM THE LATE TRIASSIC CHINLE FORMATION OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES" (PDF). Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
  11. Xu, Guang-Hui; Gao, Ke-Qin; Finarelli, John A. (2014-06-07). "A revision of the Middle Triassic scanilepiform fish Fukangichthys longidorsalis from Xinjiang, China, with comments on the phylogeny of the Actinopteri". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 34 (4): 747–759. doi:10.1080/02724634.2014.837053. ISSN   0272-4634.