Aspidorhynchidae

Aspidorhynchidae
	Belonostomus crassirostris in the Museo civico di storia naturale in Milan
Temporal occurrence
	Middle Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous
	167.7 to 65.5 million years
Locations
	Worldwide;
Systematics
Sub-stem :	Vertebrates (vertebrata)
Superclass :	Jaw mouths (Gnathostomata)
Class :	Ray fins (Actinopterygii)
Subclass :	Neuflosser (Neopterygii)
Order :	Aspidorhychiformes
Family :	Aspidorhynchidae
Scientific name of the order
	Aspidorhychiformes
	Bleeker , 1859
Scientific name of the family
	Aspidorhynchidae
	Nicholson & Lydekker , 1889

The Aspidorhynchidae are an extinct family of bony fish (Osteichthyes). They stand alone in the order Aspidorhychiformes and lived from the Middle Jurassic to the Upper Cretaceous .

features

The fish resembled today's garfish (Belonidae) with their elongated body and pointed snout . Her body was still covered with the primeval ganoid scales. The dorsal and anal fins were short and symmetrically opposite each other in the rear quarter of the trunk . The pelvic fins were just behind the middle of the body. The Aspidorhynchidae were up to one meter long. They were probably fast predatory fish.

Genera and species

Aspidorhynchus Agassiz, 1833
- Aspidorhynchus acutirostris
- Aspidorhynchus arawaki
- Aspidorhynchus euodus
- Aspidorhynchus fisheri
- Aspidorhynchus sphekodes
Belonostomus Agassiz, 1834
- Belonostomus münsteri
- Belonostomus tenuirostris
Vinctifer Jordan, 1920
- Vinctifer longirostris

literature

Robert L. Carroll : Paleontology and Evolution of the Vertebrates. Thieme, Stuttgart et al. 1993, ISBN 3-13-774401-6 .
Karl Albert Frickhinger: Fossil Atlas of Fishes. Mergus, Verlag für Natur- und Heimtierkunde Baensch, Melle 1999, ISBN 3-88244-018-X .
Joseph S. Nelson : Fishes of the World. 4th edition. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken NJ 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7 .

Web links

Commons : Aspidorhynchidae - collection of images, videos and audio files

Aspidorhynchidae on Fishbase.org (English)