''Prohalecites'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or h ...

from the

Ladinian The Ladinian is a stage and age in the Middle Triassic series or epoch. It spans the time between Ma and ~237 Ma (million years ago). The Ladinian was preceded by the Anisian and succeeded by the Carnian (part of the Upper or Late Triassic) ...

and possibly

Carnian The Carnian (less commonly, Karnian) is the lowermost stage of the Upper Triassic Series (or earliest age of the Late Triassic Epoch). It lasted from 237 to 227 million years ago (Ma). The Carnian is preceded by the Ladinian and is followe ...

(

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

) of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is the oldest known teleosteomorph, a group that includes extant

teleosts Teleostei (; Greek ''teleios'' "complete" + ''osteon'' "bone"), members of which are known as teleosts ), is, by far, the largest infraclass in the class Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fishes, containing 96% of all extant species of fish. Teleo ...

and their close fossil relatives. The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

and only known species, ''Prohalecites porroi'', was first described as "''

Pholidophorus ''Pholidophorus'' (from el, φολῐ́ς , 'horny scale' and el, φέρω , 'to bear') is an extinct genus of stem-teleost fish. Numerous species were assigned to this genus in the past, but only the type species ''Pholidophorus latiusculus'' ...

porroi''" by

Cristoforo Bellotti Cristoforo may refer to: See also * Cristoforo Colombo (disambiguation) * Cristian (disambiguation) * San Cristoforo (disambiguation) * Violet Kazue de Cristoforo Violet Kazue de Cristoforo (September 3, 1917 – October 3, 2007) was ...

, but it was later accommodated in its own genus by Wilhelm Deecke. The species ''"Pholidophorus" microlepidotus'' has occasionally been included in this genus as well, but it differed greatly from ''P. porroi'' in several respects, indicating that it was not closely related. Species of ''Prohalecites'' are small, often measuring not more than in body length.

References

Prehistoric teleostei Monotypic ray-finned fish genera Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Ladinian genera Carnian genera Middle Triassic fish Late Triassic fish of Europe Triassic Italy Fossils of Italy Fossil taxa described in 1889 {{Triassic-fish-stub