Ichthyotringa

Ichthyotringa
Temporal range: Albian to Maastrichtian
Specimen of I. damoni
Life restoration of I. furcata
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Division: Teleostei
Order: Aulopiformes
Family: †Ichthyotringidae
Genus: †Ichthyotringa
Cope, 1878
Type species
†Ichthyotringa tenuirostris
Cope, 1878
Species

See text

Synonyms

Ichthyotringa is an extinct genus of marine aulopiform ray-finned fish from Cretaceous-aged marine strata of the Middle East, Europe, and North America. Ichthyotringa are characterized by a slender, highly elongated beak that accounts for a third of the fish's length.

Taxonomy

The following species are known:

Fossil
Specimen of I. ferox

Two species known only from otoliths are placed in this genus with some uncertainty, I. cuneata & I. tavernei. These otoliths were previously thought to have a similar morphotype to osteoglossiform fishes until well-preserved otoliths verifiable as the related genus Apateodus were described. The otoliths from these taxa closely resembled but were distinct from Apateodus, causing them to be tentatively placed in the related genus Ichthyotringa.

The original name for the genus, coined by Louis Agassiz, was Rhinellus, with the type species Rhinellus furcatus from Germany and Lebanon. In 1878, Edward Drinker Cope coined the genus Ichthyotringa for specimens of a similar fish (I. tenuirostris) allegedly recovered from the Niobrara Formation of South Dakota and Nebraska. Later on, Agassiz's Rhinellus was found to be preoccupied by a synonym of the toad genus Rhinella, and thus Cope's Ichthoytringa had precedence as the proper genus name. However, Cope's Ichthyotringa tenuirostris may not originate from North America, as he had not personally found the specimens and efforts by him & others to find the type locality were unsuccessful, and no other skeletons of Ichthyotringa have been identified from the United States. Later analyses have found the composition of the rock surrounding the specimens to be reminiscent of the Sahel Alma site in Lebanon, and unlike any Niobrara deposit, making it likely that it represents a mislabeled specimen from Lebanon.

Paleoecology

Ichthyotringa largely appears to have inhabited warm surface waters, although the Sahel Alma locality, where many Ichthyotringa species are found, was a deepwater habitat. It appears to have been predated on by larger fish, with one specimen of the predatory fish Protostomias from Morocco having the skeleton of an Ichthyotringa in its stomach.

References

  1. 1 2 Taverne, L. (2006). "Revision of Ichthyotringa africana, marine fish (Teleostei, Aulopiformes) from the Upper Cretaceous of the Eurafrican Mesogea. Considerations on the phylogenetic relationships of the genus Ichthyotringa". Belgian Journal of Zoology. 136: 31–41.
  2. 1 2 Woodward (1889). Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum (Natural History). British Museum (Natural History).
  3. ↑ Silva, Hilda M. A; Gallo, Valéria (2011). "Taxonomic review and phylogenetic analysis of Enchodontoidei (Teleostei: Aulopiformes)". Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências. 83 (2): 483–511. Bibcode:2011AnABC..83..483S. doi:10.1590/S0001-37652011000200010. ISSN 0001-3765. PMID 21670874.
  4. ↑ Khalloufi, Bouziane; Ouarhache, Driss; Lelièvre, Hervé (2010-03-01). "New paleontological and geological data about Jbel Tselfat (Late Cretaceous of Morocco)". Historical Biology. 22 (1–3): 57–70. Bibcode:2010HBio...22...57K. doi:10.1080/08912961003668756. ISSN 0891-2963.
  5. ↑ Amalfitano, Jacopo; Giusberti, Luca; Fornaciari, Eliana; Carnevale, Giorgio (2020-04-03). "Upper Cenomanian Fishes from the Bonarelli Level (Oae2) of Northeastern Italy". Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia. 126 (2). doi:10.13130/2039-4942/13224. ISSN 2039-4942.
  6. ↑ Hunt, Adrian P.; Milàn, Jesper; Lucas, Spencer G.; Spielmann, Justin A. (2012). Vertebrate Coprolites: Bulletin 57. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.
  7. ↑ "Oldest Teleostean Otolith Assemblage from North America (Pawpaw Formation, Lower Cretaceous, upper Albian, northeast Texas, USA)". Cretaceous Research. 140. 2022-12-01. doi:10.1016/j.cretre (inactive 12 July 2026). ISSN 0195-6671. Archived from the original on 2022-12-22.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2026 (link)
  8. ↑ López-Palomino, Isabel; González-Rodríguez, Katia Adriana; Schultze, Hans-Peter; Palma-Ramírez, Arturo; Contreras-Cruz, Diana (2021-11-01). "Ammonites from the La Negra Facies (El Doctor Formation, late Albian) of the Muhi Quarry, Hidalgo, central Mexico". Journal of South American Earth Sciences. 111 103400. Bibcode:2021JSAES.11103400L. doi:10.1016/j.jsames.2021.103400. ISSN 0895-9811.
  9. ↑ Fielitz, Christopher; González Rodríguez, Katia (2008). "A new species of Ichthyotringa from the El Doctor Formation (Cretaceous), Hidalgo, Mexico". Mesozoic Fishes 4 – Homology and Phylogeny (PDF). Munchen, Germany: Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil. pp. 373–388. ISBN 978-3-89937-080-5.
  10. ↑ Dietze, Kathrin (2009-06-01). "Morphology and phylogenetic relationships of certain neoteleostean fishes from the Upper Cretaceous of Sendenhorst, Germany". Cretaceous Research. 30 (3): 559–574. Bibcode:2009CrRes..30..559D. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2008.11.001. ISSN 0195-6671.
  11. ↑ Argyriou, Thodoris; Alexopoulos, Apostolos; Carrillo-Briceño, Jorge D.; Cavin, Lionel (2022-04-13). "A fossil assemblage from the mid–late Maastrichtian of Gavdos Island, Greece, provides insights into the pre-extinction pelagic ichthyofaunas of the Tethys". PLOS ONE. 17 (4) e0265780. Bibcode:2022PLoSO..1765780A. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0265780. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 9007369. PMID 35417474.
  12. 1 2 Stringer, Gary L.; Schwarzhans, Werner; Phillips, George; Lambert, Roger (2020-02-05). "Highly Diversified Late Cretaceous Fish Assemblage Revealed by Otoliths (Ripley Formation and Owl Creek Formation, Northeast Mississippi, Usa)". Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia. 126 (1). doi:10.13130/2039-4942/13013. ISSN 2039-4942.
  13. 1 2 Stringer, Gary; Schwarzhans, Werner (2021-09-01). "Upper Cretaceous teleostean otoliths from the Severn Formation (Maastrichtian) of Maryland, USA, with an unusual occurrence of Siluriformes and Beryciformes and the oldest Atlantic coast Gadiformes". Cretaceous Research. 125 104867. Bibcode:2021CrRes.12504867S. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2021.104867. ISSN 0195-6671.
  14. ↑ Schwarzhans, Werner W.; Jagt, John W. M. (2021-11-01). "Silicified otoliths from the Maastrichtian type area (Netherlands, Belgium) document early gadiform and perciform fishes during the Late Cretaceous, prior to the K/Pg boundary extinction event". Cretaceous Research. 127 104921. Bibcode:2021CrRes.12704921S. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2021.104921. ISSN 0195-6671.
  15. ↑ Cope, Edward Drinker (1878). Descriptions of Fishes from the Cretaceous and Tertiary Deposits West of the Mississippi River.
  16. 1 2 3 Bardack, David (1967). "Did Some Cretaceous Teleosts Described by Cope as North American Actually Come from Lebanon?". Journal of Paleontology. 41 (5): 1274–1276. ISSN 0022-3360. JSTOR 1302099.
  17. ↑ Jordan, David Starr; Evermann, Barton Warren (1919). The Genera of Fishes ...: A Contribution to the Stability of Scientific Nomenclature. Stanford University.
  18. 1 2 Hunt, Adrian P.; Milàn, Jesper; Lucas, Spencer G.; Spielmann, Justin A. (2012). Vertebrate Coprolites: Bulletin 57. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.
  19. ↑ George, Hady; Bazzi, Mohamad; El Hossny, Tamara; Ashraf, Nida; Abi Saad, Pierre; Clements, Thomas (2024-09-02). "The famous fish beds of Lebanon: the Upper Cretaceous Lagerstätten of Haqel, Hjoula, Nammoura and Sahel Aalma". Journal of the Geological Society. 181 (5): jgs2023–210. Bibcode:2024JGSoc.181..210G. doi:10.1144/jgs2023-210.