''Cretatriacanthus'' 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 ...

from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

. It contains a single species, ''C. guidottii'' from the late

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campa ...

or early

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...

Nardò Nardò ( or ; ) is a town and ''comune'' in the southern Italian region of Apulia, in the Province of Lecce. Lies on a lowland area placed at south-west of its Province, its border includes part of the Ionian coast of Salento. For centuries, i ...

, Italy. It is generally placed as a basal tetraodontiform, although more recent studies have disputed this, finding it to instead represent an early basal

percomorph Percomorpha () is an extremely large and diverse clade of ray-finned fish. With more than 17,000 known species (including Scombroidei, tuna, Syngnathiformes, seahorses, gobies, Cichlidae, cichlids, flatfish, Labridae, wrasse, Perciformes, perches ...

(under an expanded treatment of

Acanthuriformes Acanthuriformes is a large, diverse order of mostly marine ray-finned fishes, part of the Percomorpha clade. In the past, members of this clade were placed in the suborders Acanthuroidea and Percoidea of the order Perciformes, but this treatment ...

). It can be distinguished by its tall dorsal fin of elongated spines, which shows similarities to that of the modern genus ''

Triacanthus ''Triacanthus'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Triacanthidae, the triplespines or tripodfishes. The two species in this genus are found in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy ''Triacanthus'' wa ...

''. Spines are also present on its pelvic fins.

References

† 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 ...

Monotypic prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Prehistoric percomorph genera Cretaceous fish of Europe Late Cretaceous bony fish Campanian genera Maastrichtian genera Fossils of Italy Fossil taxa described in 1996 Taxa named by James C. Tyler {{paleo-tetraodontiformes-stub

See also

References