Arhinolemur

Arhinolemur
Temporal range: Late Miocene to present
Arhinolemur obtusidens
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Division: Teleostei
Order: Characiformes
Family: Anostomidae
Subfamily: Leporininae
Genus: Arrhinolemur
Ameghino, 1898
Type species
†Arhinolemur scalabrinii
Ameghino, 1898
Synonyms

Megaleporinus J. L. Ramírez, Birindelli & Galetti, 2017

Arhinolemur is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Anostomidae,the toothed headstanders. The fishes in this genus are found in South America. The type species, Arrhinolemur scalabrinii, known from the late Miocene of Entre Ríos in Argentina, was misidentified as a species of primate until it was recognized as belonging to Anostomidae.

Taxonomy

Arhinolemus was first proposed as a genus in 1898 by the Argentine naturalist, paleontologist, anthropologist and zoologist Florentino Ameghino when he described a fossil skull excavated from cliffs in the Paraná Formation in the Entre Ríos Province of Argentina by Pedro Scalabrini. Ameghino identified the fossil as a strepsirrhine primate, related to lemurs, but in 2012 it was recognised as a fish in the family Anostomidae. In 2026 the fossil was redescribed using micro CT data and comparison of bones and it was shown that was a member of the clade known as Megaleporinus, which had been proposed by Jorge Luis Ramirez, José Luis Olivan Birindelli and Pedro Manoel Galetti Jr. in 2017. As Arhinolemur predates Megaleporinus then the latter name is a junior synonym of the former. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes classifies the genus Arhinolemur in the subfamily Leporininae of the toothed headstander family Anostomoidae in the characin order Characiformes.

Species

These are the currently recognized species in this genus:

Etymology

Arhinolemus is a name which prefixes a-, meaning "without", to rhinos, meaning "snout", and lemur, the primate group of Madagascar. The type species of this genus, A. scalabrinii, was originally identified as a primate, only being identified as an anastomid fish in 2012.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Arhinolemur". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 5 June 2026.
  2. 1 2 Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Anostomidae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 5 June 2026.
  3. ↑ Bogan, Sergio; Sidlauskas, Brian; Vari, Richard; Agnolin, Federico (2012). "Arrhinolemur scalabrinii Ameghino, 1898, of the late Miocene - A taxonomic journey from the Mammalia to the Anostomidae (Ostariophysi: Characiformes)". Neotropical Ichthyology. 10 (3): 555–560. doi:10.1590/S1679-62252012000300008.
  4. ↑ Panzeri, K. M.; Andrelino, H. L.; Bogan, S.; et al. (2026). "MicroCT reinvestigation of the only articulated fossil anostomid fish reveals synonymy of Arhinolemur Ameghino, 1898 and Megaleporinus Ramirez et al., 2017". The Anatomical Record Pages=1–27. doi:10.1002/ar.70178.
  5. ↑ Christopher Scharpf (1 June 2026). "Family ANOSTOMIDAE Günther 1864 (Toothed Headstanders)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf. Retrieved 5 June 2026.