''Beerichthys'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

. It contains a single species, ''Beerichthys ingens'', that was a member of the

Ypresian In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age (geology), age or lowest stage (stratigraphy), stratigraphic stage of the Eocene. It spans the time between , is preceded by the Thanetian Age (part of the Paleocene) and is followed by th ...

London Clay The London Clay Formation is a Sediment#Shores and shallow seas, marine formation (geology), geological formation of Ypresian (early Eocene Epoch, c. 54-50 million years ago) age which outcrop, crops out in the southeast of England. The London C ...

fauna of lower

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is known only from a series of incomplete skulls. When originally described in 1966, ''B. ingens'' was placed in a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

, "Beerichthyidae," within Iniomi. Later, more (also incomplete) skulls were studied by Colin Patterson, who determined that the fish was a

louvar The louvar or luvar (''Luvarus imperialis'') is a species of marine ray-finned fish, it is the only extant species in the genus ''Luvarus'' and family Luvaridae. This taxon is classified within the suborder Acanthuroidei, which includes the surg ...

, an assessment supported with further CT scanning of its fossils.

References

Luvaridae Prehistoric percomorph genera Eocene fish of Europe Ypresian genera Fossils of England Monotypic prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Fossil taxa described in 1966 {{acanthuroidei-stub

See also

References