''Oniichthys'' is 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 ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

gar Gars are an ancient group of ray-finned fish in the family Lepisosteidae. They comprise seven living species of fish in two genera that inhabit fresh, brackish, and occasionally marine waters of eastern North America, Central America and Cuba ...

in the family

Lepisosteidae Gars are an ancient group of ray-finned fish in the Family (biology), family Lepisosteidae. They comprise seven living species of fish in two genera that inhabit Fresh water, fresh, Brackish water, brackish, and occasionally marine waters of eas ...

. It contains a single

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

, ''O. falipoui'', known from 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 ...

) of

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. It is known from a few very well-preserved, near-complete specimens from the Kem Kem Formation, where it coexisted with the famous ''

Spinosaurus ''Spinosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of large spinosaurid theropod dinosaurs that lived in what now is North Africa during the Cenomanian faunal stage, stage of the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), period, about 100 to 94 annum, million year ...

''. It closely resembles the modern genus ''

Atractosteus ''Atractosteus'' (from Greek ''atraktos'' (ἀτρακτὀς), 'spindle' and ''osteon'' (ὀστέον), 'bone') is a genus of gars in the family Lepisosteidae, with three extant species. It is one of two surviving gar genera alongside ''Lepisost ...

'', and is generally placed as its

sister genus In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and t ...

, a sister to ''Atractosteus'' and ''

Lepisosteus ''Lepisosteus'' (from Greek ''lepis'' (), 'scale' and ''osteon'' (), 'bone') is a genus of gars in the family Gar, Lepisosteidae. It contains four extant species, found throughout eastern and central North America. It is one of two extant gar gen ...

'', or even as a species within ''Atractosteus'' as per Grande (2010), although this latter view has been disputed based on differences in skull morphology. The genus name references the

Ooni The Ooni of Ile-Ife (Ọọ̀ni of Ilè-Ifẹ̀) is the traditional ruler of Ifẹ, Ilé-Ifẹ̀. The Ooni dynasty existed before the reign of Oduduwa which historians have argued to have been between the 7th-9th centuries A.D. After the de ...

, divine Yoruba kings, while the

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

honors Christian Falipou, who loaned one of the

type specimens In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes t ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q52158826, from2=Q52158831 Lepisosteidae Prehistoric holostei Cretaceous bony fish Cretaceous fish of Africa Fossils of Morocco Cretaceous Morocco Cenomanian genera Fossil taxa described in 2001 Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera