Lycoptera
| Lycoptera | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lycoptera davidi |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous | ||||||||||||
| 157 to 110 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Lycoptera | ||||||||||||
| Müller , 1848 |
Lycoptera is a real bony fish (Teleostei)belongingto the Lycopteridae family. The species Lycoptera davidi lived 157 to 136 million years ago, i.e. H. in the period from the Kimmeridgian ( Upper Jurassic ) to the Valanginian ( Lower Cretaceous ). Fossils were found mainly in Liaoning (Deer Province) in the northeast of the People's Republic of China . The Jiufotang formation here contains a rich Lycoptera - Ichthyofauna , which, however, was placed in the Upper Aptian - Lower Albian period. They are the oldest fossil members of the osteoglossamorpha (osteoglossamorpha)that are still alive today.
features
In Lycoptera is diminutive freshwater fish, which had a size of seven to nine centimeters on average and could be a maximum of about 18 centimeters long. They had a slender, elongated body, a narrow head with a rounded snout and an upper mouth. The dorsal fin was far back, above the anal fin , the pectoral fins were narrow and long, the caudal fin was only slightly indented.
Lycoptera were probably schooling fish and mainly fed on drifting grasses.
species
- Lycoptera davidi
- Lycoptera muroii
literature
- Robert L. Carroll: Paleontology and Evolution of the Vertebrates . Thieme, Stuttgart (1993), ISBN 3-13774-401-6 .
- Karl Albert Frickhinger: Fossils Atlas Fishes . Mergus-Verlag, Melle, 1999, ISBN 3-88244-018-X .
