''Lignobrycon myersi'' is a species of characiform fish

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

where it occurs in the Rio do Braço system. It is the only extant member of its

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

. A

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

species is also known, †'' Lignobrycon ligniticus'' ( Woodward, 1898) from the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

-aged

Tremembé Formation Tremembé is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Vale do Paraíba e Litoral Norte. The population is 47,714 (2020 est.) in an area of 191.09 km². The elevation is 560 m. A s ...

of Brazil. This species was actually the first described member of the genus and was recovered from

lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...

deposits, hence the name ''Lignobrycon''. It was only after the description of the fossil ''L. ligniticus'' that the extant ''L. myersi'' was identified, being described in the genus ''Moojenichthys''. In 1998, the relationship between the fossil and extant species was identified, and ''L. myersi'' was also moved to the genus ''Lignobrycon'', making the genus extant once again. A second potential fossil species, †'' Lignobrycon altus'' (Santos, 1946) has also been identified from

Late Pliocene Late or LATE may refer to: Everyday usage * Tardy, or late, not being on time * Late (or the late) may refer to a person who is dead Music * Late (The 77s album), ''Late'' (The 77s album), 2000 * Late (Alvin Batiste album), 1993 * Late!, a pseudo ...

Early Pleistocene The Early Pleistocene is an unofficial epoch (geology), sub-epoch in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, representing the earliest division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently esti ...

-aged shales of Brazil, but these remains are poorly preserved and it may not even represent a characiform.

References

* Triportheidae Characiformes genera Freshwater fish of Brazil Endemic fish of Brazil {{Characiformes-stub Fish genera with one living species