''Ombilinichthys'' is an extinct genus of

gourami Gouramis, or gouramies , are a group of fresh water, freshwater Anabantiformes, anabantiform fish that comprise the family (biology), family Osphronemidae. The fish are native to Asia—from the Indian Subcontinent to Southeast Asia and northeas ...

from the Ombilin Basin in

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

. It was discovered among fossils collected in 2009 from the

lacustrine A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

Sangkarewang Formation The Sankarewang Formation is an ?Ypresian, Early or Middle Eocene-aged geological formation in Sumatra, Indonesia near Padang. It is among the very few Paleogene fossil deposits from Southeast Asia that preserves a freshwater ecosystem, and contai ...

and described in 2015. It is the earliest known gourami, dated uncertainly to the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

. It contains a single species, ''Ombilinichthys yamini'', named for Indonesian poet and revolutionary

Mohammad Yamin Muhammad Yamin (24 August 1903 – 17 October 1962) was an Indonesian poet, politician, historian and national hero who played a key role in the writing of the draft preamble to the 1945 constitution. Early life and education Yamin was born ...

, who was born in the same town where ''Ombilinichthys yamini'' was discovered. It is a small and deep fish, with the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

's body being 37mm long and 18mm deep. Its skull is also deep at 15mm. It is closely related to the genus ''

Osphronemus ''Osphronemus'' is a genus of large gouramis, the only genus within the subfamily Osphroneminae. These fish are known as the giant gouramis and are native to rivers, lakes, pools, swamps and floodplains in Southeast Asia, with ''O. exodon'' fro ...

''. Extinct animals of Indonesia

References

Osphronemidae Fossil taxa described in 2015 Fossils of Indonesia Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera {{Taxonbar, from=Q21348618