''Eichstaettia'' ("of
Eichstätt
Eichstätt () is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Dioce ...
") is an extinct genus of 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 early
Tithonian
In the geological timescale, the Tithonian is the latest age (geology), age of the Late Jurassic Epoch and the uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 149.2 ±0.7 annum, Ma and 143.1 ±0.6 (mi ...
stage of the
Late Jurassic
The Late Jurassic is the third Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time scale, geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic stratum, strata.Owen ...
epoch.
It contains a single species, ''E. mayri'' from the
Eichstätt Formation of Germany, which is part of the wider
Solnhofen Limestone
The Solnhofen Limestone or Solnhofen Plattenkalk, formally known as the Altmühltal Formation, is a Jurassic Konservat-Lagerstätte that preserves a rare assemblage of fossilized organisms, including highly detailed imprints of soft bodied organi ...
. It was an early
stem-group
In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor. ...
elopiform, making it distantly related to modern
tarpons and
ladyfish
The Elopidae are a family of ray-finned fish containing a single living genus ''Elops''. They are commonly known as ladyfish, skipjacks, jack-rashes, or tenpounders.
The ladyfish are a coastal-dwelling fish found throughout the tropical and su ...
.
It was initially described as a species of ''
Anaethalion''.
See also
*
Prehistoric fish
__NOTOC__
Prehistoric fish are early fish that are known only from fossil records. They are the earliest known vertebrates, and include the first and extinct fish that lived through the Cambrian to the Quaternary. The study of prehistoric fish is ...
*
List of prehistoric bony fish
This list of prehistoric bony fish is an attempt to create a comprehensive listing of all Genus, genera from the fossil record that have ever been considered to be bony fish (class Osteichthyes), excluding purely vernacular terms. The list includ ...
References
Elopiformes
{{Elopiformes-stub
Monotypic prehistoric ray-finned fish genera
Late Jurassic fish of Europe
Late Jurassic bony fish
Tithonian genera
Solnhofen fauna
Fossil taxa described in 1987