''Cryptoberyx'' 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 ...

that lived during the late

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy's (ICS) geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or the lowest stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Cretace ...

stage of 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 ...

. Two species are known from southern Europe and the Middle East, both part of the former

Tethys Sea The Tethys Ocean ( ; ), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean during much of the Mesozoic Era and early-mid Cenozoic Era. It was the predecessor to the modern Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Eurasia ...

. The following species are known: * †''C. minimus'' Gaudant, 1978 (type species) - Cenomanian of

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

(

Sannine Formation The Sannine Formation, also called the Sannine Limestone, is a Cretaceous geologic formation in Lebanon. It is a Konservat-Lagerstätte that contains a high diversity of well-preserved fish, reptiles, and invertebrates from the Tethys Ocean wit ...

) * †''C. brevis'' Gaudant, 1978 - Cenomanian of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

The holotype of ''C. minimus'' was initially used by

Arthur Smith Woodward Sir Arthur Smith Woodward, FRS (23 May 1864 – 2 September 1944) was an English palaeontologist, known as a world expert in fossil fish. He also described the Piltdown Man fossils, which were later determined to be fraudulent. He is not rel ...

as a

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype (biology), isotype ...

of '' Lissoberyx dayi'', until later studies found it to represent a different genus entirely. ''Cryptoberyx'' was previously considered a

beryciform The Beryciformes are a poorly-understood order of carnivorous ray-finned fishes consisting of 7 families, 30 genera, and 161 species. They feed on small fish and invertebrates. Beyond this, little is known about the biology of most member specie ...

under a former

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

view of the order (which also included the

Trachichthyiformes The Trachichthyiformes are an order of ray-finned fishes in the superorder Acanthopterygii. Fossils of this group date back to the Cenomanian. Member genera include the flashlight fishes, fangtooth fishes, spinyfins, pineconefishes, redfishes, ...

and

Holocentriformes Holocentridae is a family of ray-finned fish, the only family of the suborder Holocentroidei and the only family of the order Holocentriformes. The members of the subfamily Holocentrinae are typically known as squirrelfish, while the members of ...

), as a stem-group " trachichthyoid". With the splitting of these two orders, its taxonomic identity is unclear.

References

Acanthopterygii Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Late Cretaceous bony fish Late Cretaceous fish of Asia Cretaceous fish of Europe Cenomanian genera Fossils of Lebanon Fossils of Portugal Fossil taxa described in 1978 {{beryciformes-stub

See also

References