''Elopopsis'' (meaning "''

Elops The Elopidae are a family (biology), 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 t ...

''-like face") 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

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 ...

(

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 ...

Turonian The Turonian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS' geologic timescale, the second age (geology), age in the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch, or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the Upper Cretaceous series (stratigraphy), ...

) of Europe, North Africa and North America. It was a member of the

Crossognathiformes Crossognathiformes is an extinct order of ray-finned fish that lived from the Late Jurassic to the Eocene. Its phylogenetic placement is disputed; some authors have recovered it as part of the teleost stem group, while others place it in a basal ...

, in the family

Pachyrhizodontidae Crossognathiformes is an extinct order of ray-finned fish that lived from the Late Jurassic to the Eocene. Its phylogenetic placement is disputed; some authors have recovered it as part of the teleost stem group, while others place it in a basal ...

. It contains the following species: * †''E. crassus'' (Dixon, 1850) - early-mid

to middle

of England ( English Chalk) * †''E. heckeli''

Reuss Reuss may refer to: *Reuss (surname) * Reuss (river) in Switzerland * Imperial County of Reuss or Reuß, several former states or countries in present-day Germany, and the People's State of Reuss * Principality of Reuss-Greiz and Principality of R ...

, 1857 - Cenomanian of the Czech Republic * †''E. fenzli'' Heckel, 1856 (

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

) - late Cenomanian of Slovenia ( Komen Limestone) * †''E. microdon'' Heckel, 1856 - late Cenomanian of Slovenia (Komen Limestone), Morocco (

Jbel Tselfat JBEL may refer to: * A variation on the name Jabal * '' Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship and the Law'' (JBEL), a publication of Pepperdine University School of Law See also * * Jabal (disambiguation) Jabal, Jabel, Jebel or Jibal may refer ...

), and Germany (

Hesseltal Formation The Hesseltal Formation or Blackcoloured Formation is a Late Cretaceous (late Cenomanian to early Turonian) geological formation from northern Germany. It consists of lithified marls and limestone, with a unique series of black shales deposited ...

) * †''E. smithwoodwardi''

Bayer Bayer AG (English: , commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer' ...

, 1905 - Turonian of the Czech Republic * †''E. ziegleri'' von der Marck, 1868 - late Turonian of Germany Indeterminate remains referable to ''Elopopsis'' are known from the Cenomanian of Saskatchewan, Canada (

Ashville Formation The Ashville Formation is a geological formation in Saskatchewan and Manitoba whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.Weishampel, David B; et al. (2004). "D ...

) and the United States (

Greenhorn Limestone The Greenhorn Limestone or Greenhorn Formation is a geologic formation in the Great Plains Region of the United States, dating to the Cenomanian and Turonian ages of the Late Cretaceous period. The formation gives its name to the Greenhorn cycle ...

of Colorado,

Graneros Shale The Graneros Shale is a geologic formation in the United States identified in the Great Plains as well as New Mexico that dates to the Cenomanian Age of the Cretaceous Period. It is defined as the finely sandy argillaceous or clayey ''near-shor ...

of Nebraska), indicating that they inhabited the

Western Interior Seaway The Western Interior Seaway (also called the Cretaceous Seaway, the Niobraran Sea, the North American Inland Sea, or the Western Interior Sea) was a large inland sea (geology), inland sea that existed roughly over the present-day Great Plains of ...

early on. The former species "''E.''" ''dentex'' from the Komen Limestone appears to be a specimen of ''

Enchodus ''Enchodus'' (from , 'spear' and 'tooth') is an extinct genus of aulopiformes, aulopiform Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish related to alepisaurus, lancetfish and lizardfish. Species of ''Enchodus'' flourished during the Late Cretaceous, where t ...

''. It was likely a predatory fish that fed on smaller fish. A well-preserved specimen of ''E. microdon'' from the Hesseltal Formation of Germany has fossilized intestinal casts.

References

Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Pachyrhizodontidae Cenomanian genus first appearances Turonian genus extinctions Late Cretaceous bony fish Late Cretaceous fish of North America Cretaceous fish of Europe Late Cretaceous fish of Africa Fossils of the United States Fossils of Canada Fossils of Morocco Fossils of England Fossils of Germany Fossils of Slovenia Fossils of the Czech Republic Taxa named by Johann Jakob Heckel Fossil taxa described in 1856 {{cretaceous-fish-stub