''Dorypterus'' is a small,

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus of prehistoric

ray-finned 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 hor ...

bony fish Osteichthyes (), popularly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes, which have skeletons primarily composed of cartilag ...

. It lived during the Wuchiapingian stage of the late Permian epoch in what is now Germany (

Kupferschiefer The Kupferschiefer (German for Copper Shale, also called Copper Slate) or Kupfermergel (Copper Marl), (T1 or Z1) is an extensive and remarkable sedimentary unit in Central Europe. The relatively monotonous succession is typically and maximum th ...

) and England (

Marl Slate The Marl Slate Formation is a geological formation in England. Despite its name, it is mostly dolomite rock. The Marl Slate Formation was formed about 273 to 259 million years ago, during the Guadalupian and Lopingian epochs of the late Pe ...

). It is a hypsisomatic bobasatraniiform with a high dorsal fin. Due to anatomical differences with other bobasatraniiforms, such as the presence of pelvic fins and the reduced scale cover, ''Dorypterus'' is placed in its own monotypic family, Dorypteridae. Two species are known, ''D. hoffmanni'' and ''D. althausi'', which are distinguished by differences in length of the dorsal fin. Whereas ''D. hoffmanni'' has a long dorsal fin, the dorsal fin of ''D. althausi'' is short. However, it is possible that this difference is due to sexual dimorphism, and that ''D. althausi'' represents the female phenotype of ''D. hoffmanni''.

References

See also