Kenyaichthys

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Kenyaichthys
Temporal occurrence
late Miocene
6 to 5.7 million years
Locations
Systematics
Ovalentaria
Earfish relatives (Atherinomorphae)
Toothpies (Cyprinodontiformes)
Aplocheiloidei
Kenyaichthyidae
Kenyaichthys
Scientific name of the  family
Kenyaichthyidae
Altner & Reichenbacher , 2015
Scientific name of the  genus
Kenyaichthys
Altner & Reichenbacher, 2015

Kenyaichthys ( Kenya + Gr . "Ichthys" = fish) is an extinct species of fish from the order of the toothfish (Cyprinodontiformes). Fossils totaling 164 specimens, half of them completely intact, were found in the Tugen Hills in Baringo County ,Kenya. For Kenyaichthys a new family was set up, the Kenyaichthyidae .

features

In Kenyaichthys there are small fish that the recent African killifish of the genera in the external shape Aplocheilus and Pachypanchax equalized. Their total length was between 22 and 40 mm with a standard length of 20 to 36 mm and a head length that was 25 to 34% of the standard length. The greatest body height lay between the rear edge of the head and the base of the pectoral fin and reached between 16 and 28% of the standard length, the lowest body height on the tail stalk was between 6 and 16% of the standard length. The caudal stalk was long and 22 to 30% of the standard length, the caudal fin reached a length of 8 to 17% of the standard length and was rounded or spade-shaped. Since most of the specimens were fossilized sideways , it can be assumed that the fish were flattened sideways. The snout was pointed with a slightly protruding lower jaw. The entire body, parts of the head ( operculum , Vorkiemendeckel , frontal bone ) and the tail fin base were with cycloid scales covered.

Systematics

Kenyaichthys is the only genus of the Kenyaichthyidae so far. Within the order of the cyprinodontiformes , the Kenyaichthyidae belong to the suborder Aplocheiloidei , together with the neotropical Rivulidae , the African Nothobranchiidae and the Aplocheilidae that occur in Asia, Madagascar and the Seychelles . A phylogenetic analysis surprisingly revealed that the Kenyaichthyidae are the sister group of the Rivulidae.

The only species of the genus Kenyaichthys described so far is Kenyaichthys kipkechi , but the findings may represent a shoal of closely related species , similar to the cichlids of the genera Haplochromis in Lake Victoria and Amphilophus in the crater lakes of Nicaragua.

literature