Ampheristus

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Ampheristus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish. It was a basal or stem member of the family Ophidiidae, which contains modern cusk-eels. Fossils are known from worldwide (the United States, Europe, India, and New Zealand) from the Late Cretaceous to the late Paleogene (Maastrichtian to Oligocene), making it a rather successful survivor of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.[1]

It is one of the oldest known members of the order Ophidiiformes alongside Pastorius from the Maastrichtian of Italy.[2] Only the type species, A. toliapicus from the London Clay, is known from body fossils; the rest are known only by the genus's distinctive otoliths.[1]

Species

The following species are known:[3]

  • A. americanus Schwarzhans & Stringer, 2020 (Maastrichtian of Texas and Maryland, Danian of Arkansas)[1][4]
  • A. bavaricus (Koken, 1891) (Maastrichtian of Germany)
  • A. bhavnagarensis Singh, Patel & Rana, 2017 (Eocene of India)[5]
  • A. brevicauda Schwarzhans, 2010 (Maastrichtian of Germany)
  • A. brevicaudatus Lin, Steurbaut & Nolf, 2024 (Eocene of Alabama, Virginia and Maryland)[6]
  • A. neobavaricus Schwarzhans, 2012 (Paleocene of Germany)
  • A. pentlandensis Schwarzhans, 2019 (Eocene of New Zealand)
  • A. sinuocaudatus Schwarzhans, 1980 (Eocene of New Zealand)
  • A. sztrakosi Nolf & Steurbaut, 2004 (Oligocene of Italy)[7]
  • A. toliapicus König, 1825 (Eocene of the United Kingdom) (type species)
  • A. traunensis Schwarzhans, 2010 (Maastrichtian of Germany)

The species A. lerichei, known by a body fossil from the Eocene of Belgium and otoliths from the same region, is alternately placed in Ampheristus or Hoplobrotula.[8][9]

References

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