''Beckius'' is an extinct genus of marine whitefish known from the

Early Oligocene The Rupelian is, in the geologic timescale, the older of two age (geology), ages or the lower of two stage (stratigraphy), stages of the Oligocene epoch (geology), Epoch/series (stratigraphy), Series. It spans the time between . It is preceded b ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It contains a single species, ''B. plicatus'', known only from a single fossilized scale from the Tumey Formation, a

lens A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...

of the Kreyenhagen Shale. The scale was found to resemble those of ''

Coregonus ''Coregonus'' is a diverse genus of fish in the salmon family (Salmonidae). The ''Coregonus'' species are known as whitefishes. The genus contains at least 68 described extant taxa, but the true number of species is a matter of debate. The type ...

'', although significantly different in many ways, leading to its classification as a new genus of Coregoninae. The genus name was later reused in 1992 for a

scarab beetle The family Scarabaeidae, as currently defined, consists of over 35,000 species of beetles worldwide; they are often called scarabs or scarab beetles. The classification of this family has undergone significant change. Several groups formerly tre ...

from

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

, until it was discovered to be preoccupied; the beetle was thus renamed '' Debeckius''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21440044

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species or languages). It is one of the mo ...

Fossil taxa described in 1946 Rupelian genera Fossils of California Monotypic prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Oligocene fish Paleogene fish of North America