''Mene purdyi'' an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species of

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 ...

in the genus ''

Mene The moonfish of the genus ''Mene'', the sole extant genus of the family Menidae, are disk-shaped fish which bear a vague resemblance to gourami, thanks to their thread-like pelvic fins. Today, the genus is represented only by ''Mene maculata'' ...

'', from Late

Thanetian The Thanetian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS Geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age or uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stratigraphic stage of the Paleocene epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), Serie ...

-aged marine deposits in northern

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. ''M. purdyi'' is currently known only from a single skull and a few post-cranial bones. ''M. purdyi'' is among the largest, if not the largest, members of the genus, as the skull suggests that it would have been over in life. The living species, '' M. maculata'', by comparison, grows to an average length of .

References

* "A new species of Mene (Perciformes: Menidae) from the Paleocene of South America, with notes on paleoenvironment and a brief review of menid fishes.

Menidae, †Mene purdyi Paleocene fish Thanetian life Prehistoric fish of South America Paleogene Peru Fossils of Peru Fossil taxa described in 2005 {{paleo-perciformes-stub