Coriops

Coriops
Temporal range: Cenomanian to Danian
Fossil tooth plate, National Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Division: Teleostei
Cohort: Osteoglossomorpha
Genus: †Coriops
Estes, 1969
Species:
†C. amnicolus
Binomial name
†Coriops amnicolus
Estes, 1969

Coriops is an extinct genus of freshwater osteoglossomorph fish, possibly a hiodontiform, with a single species (C. amnicolus) known from the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleocene of western North America.

Taxonomy

Sepkoski's compendium of marine fossil genera has it classified as an eel, but it has also been previously classified in the Elopiformes and the Osteoglossomorpha. More recent studies have affirmed it as being an osteoglossomorph, and have suggested that it may be a relative of the extant mooneyes (Hiodontidae). An indeterminate hiodontid specimen (found alongside the Raptorex holotype) from the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia was found to share close similarities with both Hiodon and Coriops.

Distribution

Fossils of an indeterminate Coriops species are known as early as the Cenomanian of the Naturita Formation in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, USA. Fossils of the species C. amnicolus become more common across a large area of North America around the Campanian, where they are known from the Kaiparowits Formation of Utah, the Mesa Verde Formation of Wyoming, and the Dinosaur Park Formation & Belly River Group in Alberta, Canada. During the Maastrichtian, remains of C. amnicolus are abundant and widespread in the Hell Creek Formation of Montana, the Dakotas, & Wyoming. The youngest records of Coriops are from the Early Paleocene-aged Fort Union Formation of Montana, suggesting that it at least briefly survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that killed the dinosaurs. Even younger Coriops vertebrae were previously thought to have been identified from a Late Paleocene-aged locality of the Ravenscrag Formation in Saskatchewan, Canada. However, a re-analysis of these vertebra found them to instead more likely belong to the osteoglossomorph Lopadichthys, previously described from the Paleocene of Canada.

The wide distribution of Coriops in the North American interior, its disappearance and reappearance in southern regions such as Utah, and its general higher abundance in high latitude formations over lower latitude ones, suggests that it may have been a northernly-distributed species whose range repeatedly expanded south during cooler climactic intervals.

See also

References

  1. ↑ R. Estes. 1969. Two new Late Cretaceous fishes from Montana and Wyoming. Breviora 335:1-15
  2. 1 2 3 "PBDB Taxon". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  3. 1 2 Brinkman, Donald B.; Newbrey, Michael G.; Neuman, Andrew G. (2014), "Diversity and paleoecology of actinopterygian fish from vertebrate microfossil localities of the Maastrichtian Hell Creek Formation of Montana", Through the End of the Cretaceous in the Type Locality of the Hell Creek Formation in Montana and Adjacent Areas, Geological Society of America, doi:10.1130/2014.2503(09), ISBN 978-0-8137-2503-1
  4. 1 2 3 4 At the Top of the Grand Staircase: The Late Cretaceous of Southern Utah. Indiana University Press. 2013. ISBN 978-0-253-00883-1. JSTOR j.ctt16gzhs1.
  5. 1 2 3 Murray, Alison M.; Newbrey, Michael G.; Neuman, Andrew G.; Brinkman, Donald B. (2016-07-03). "New articulated osteoglossomorph from Late Cretaceous freshwater deposits (Maastrichtian, Scollard Formation) of Alberta, Canada". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 36 (4) e1120737. Bibcode:2016JVPal..36E0737M. doi:10.1080/02724634.2016.1120737. ISSN 0272-4634.
  6. ↑ Newbrey, M. G.; Brinkman, D. B.; Winkler, D. A.; Freedman, E. A.; Neuman, A. G.; Fowler, D. W.; Woodward, H. N. (2013). "Teleost centrum and jaw elements from the Upper Cretaceous Nemegt Formation (Campanian-Maastrichtian) of Mongolia and a re-identification of the fish centrum found with the theropod Raptorex kreigsteini". In Arratia, G.; Schultze, H.-S.; Wilson, M. V. H. (eds.). Mesozoic Fishes 5 – Global Diversity and Evolution. Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil. pp. 291−303. ISBN 978-3-89937-159-8.
  7. ↑ Brinkman, Donald B. (1990). "Paleooecology of the Judith River Formation (Campanian) of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada: Evidence from vertebrate microfossil localities". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 78 (1–2): 37–54. Bibcode:1990PPP....78...37B. doi:10.1016/0031-0182(90)90203-j. ISSN 0031-0182.
  8. ↑ Brinkman, Donald B. (2019). "TELEOST ABDOMINAL CENTRA FROM THE BELLY RIVER GROUP OF ALBERTA, CANADA". Paludicola. 12 (3): 109–152.
  9. ↑ Brinkman, Donald B.; Divay, Julien D.; David G. DeMar, Jr; Mantilla, Gregory P. Wilson (2025-07-08). "Moderate extinctions and slow recovery of non-marine teleost fishes across the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, with a systematic appraisal of early Paleocene teleost fishes from Saskatchewan, Canada and Montana, USA". Palaeontologia Electronica. 28 (2): 1–54. doi:10.26879/1559. ISSN 1094-8074.
  10. ↑ Sinjini, Sinha (2019). Paleoichthyology and Sedimentology of the Paleocene Ravenscrag Formation, Saskatchewan, Canada (Thesis thesis). University of Alberta.
  11. ↑ Sinha, Sinjini; Brinkman, Donald B.; Murray, Alison M.; Krause, David W. (2021-05-04). "Late Paleocene fishes of the Ravenscrag Formation, Roche Percée area, southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 41 (3). doi:10.1080/02724634.2021.1957907. ISSN 0272-4634.
  12. ↑ Wilson, Gregory P.; Clemens, William A.; Horner, John R.; Hartman, Joseph H. (2014-01-21). Through the End of the Cretaceous in the Type Locality of the Hell Creek Formation in Montana and Adjacent Areas. Geological Society of America. ISBN 978-0-8137-2503-1.