Abstract
Bony fishes are among the best represented macrofossils from the earliest Eocene Fur Formation, northern Denmark. The most abundant fish of the formation has never been formally described, in spite of its abundance throughout the formation, and only referred to as an ‘argentinoid’. This work provides a taxonomic study of this argentinoid taxon, which is described herein as Surlykus longigracilis gen. et sp. nov. The caudal skeleton shows separated first preural and first ural centra, a unique condition within the Argentiniformes. In addition, it is characterised by having a large mouth and a single supramaxilla, which suggest that Surlykus gen. nov. occupies a basal position within the Argentiniformes, representing the sister-group to all the other lineages of this clade ([Argentinidae + Opisthoproctidae] + [Bathylagidae + Microstomatidae]), and, consequently, a stem-group Argentiniformes. Mass-mortality assemblages may indicate that Surlykus longigracilis gen. et sp. nov. formed large schools in the ancient North Sea Basin, where it probably represented the trophic nucleus of the fish communities.
Publisher
Geological Society of Denmark
Cited by
1 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献