Zenopsis

Zenopsis Temporal range: Early Oligocene–present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N [1]
Mirror Dory (Z. nebulosa)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Zeiformes
Family:	Zeidae
Genus:	Zenopsis T. N. Gill, 1862

Zenopsis is a genus of dories, a group of marine fish. There are five extant species, but the genus is also known from fossils dating back to the Oligocene epoch. They largely resemble the better-known John Dory, and are typically found in relatively deep water, below normal scuba diving depth.

Species

There are currently five recognized recent species in this genus: ^[2]

• Zenopsis conchifer (R. T. Lowe, 1852) (sometimes misspelled ^[3] Z. conchifera) (Silvery John dory)
• Zenopsis nebulosa (Temminck & Schlegel, 1845) (mirror dory)
• Zenopsis oblongus Parin, 1989
• Zenopsis stabilispinosa Nakabo, D. J. Bray & Yamada, 2006
• Zenopsis filamentosa,Y Kai, F Tashiro, 2019 ^[4]

The following fossil species are also known: ^[5]

• † Zenopsis clarus Daniltshenko, 1960 - Oligocene of North Caucasus, Russia
• † Zenopsis hoernesi (Gorjanović-Kramberger, 1891) - Oligocene of Slovenia
• † Zenopsis tyleri Baciu & Bannikov, 2001 - Oligocene of Romania

Morphological analysis suggests that the fossil genus " Cyttoides " from the Early Oligocene of Switzerland is in fact a specimen of Zenopsis, which would make it known as † Zenopsis glaronensis Wettstein, 1886. However, this name is thought to be a nomen dubium due to the highly distorted nature of the specimen. Another dubious species, † Zenopsis colchicus (Simonovich, 1875) (= Platax colchicus) from the Eocene of Georgia, is known only from illustrations of lost specimens and may be the earliest known record of the Zeidae. It closely resembles Zenopsis and may be the earliest record of it, but its identity remains uncertain without actual specimens. ^[5]

References

1. Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology. 364: 560. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved 2007-12-25.
2. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Zenopsis". FishBase . October 2012 version.
3. Bailly, N. (2013). Zenopsis conchifer (Lowe, 1852). Archived 2013-11-05 at the Wayback Machine In: Froese, R. and D. Pauly, Eds. FishBase. World Register of Marine Species. Accessed 6 June 2013.
4. Kai, Yoshiaki; Tashiro, Fumihito (2019-07-01). "Zenopsis filamentosa (Zeidae), a new mirror dory from the western Pacific Ocean, with redescription of Zenopsis nebulosa" . Ichthyological Research. 66 (3): 340–352. doi:10.1007/s10228-018-00679-1. ISSN   1616-3915. Archived from the original on 2023-02-05. Retrieved 2024-08-18.
5. Baciu, Dorin-Sorin; Bannikov, Alexandre F.; Tyler, James C. (2005). "Revision of the fossil fishes of the family Zeidae (Zeiformes)". Bolletino de Museo Storia Naturale di Verona. 29: 95–128.