''Platinx'' 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 inhabited the northern

Tethys Ocean The Tethys Ocean ( ; ), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean during much of the Mesozoic Era and early-mid Cenozoic Era. It was the predecessor to the modern Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Eurasia ...

during the early to middle

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 was the last surviving member of the ancient order

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 ...

, which was a dominant and successful group throughout the preceding

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...

era. It contains a single species, ''P. macropterus'', whose remains are primarily known from the late

Ypresian In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age (geology), age or lowest stage (stratigraphy), stratigraphic stage of the Eocene. It spans the time between , is preceded by the Thanetian Age (part of the Paleocene) and is followed by th ...

-aged rocks of

Monte Bolca Monte Bolca is an Ypresian, Early Eocene-aged geologic site located near Verona, Italy, Verona, Italy. A ''Konservat-Lagerstätte'', it contains an extremely well-preserved and diverse marine biota, including the most diverse fish fauna of any Ce ...

, Italy. However, specimens have also been recovered from the earliest-Ypresian

Danata Formation The Danata Formation (or Danatinskaya, Danatinsk, Russian: Danata Svita) is an Ypresian, earliest Eocene to Middle Eocene sedimentary succession located in Turkmenistan. It is mostly famous for its fish-bearing horizons (Ichthyofauna). The formati ...

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

(sometimes placed in their own distinct species, ''P. cognitus'' Daniltshenko, 1968, although these do not appear to be distinct enough from ''P. macropterus''), as well as incomplete remains from the middle Eocene of

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

The extinct bonytongues ''

Monopteros A monopteros (Ancient Greek: , from: μόνος, 'only, single, alone', and , 'wing'), also called a monopteron or cyclostyle, is a circular colonnade supporting a roof but without any walls.Curl, James Stevens (2006). ''Oxford Dictionary of Archi ...

'' and '' Thrissopterus'', which co-occur with ''Platinx'' in Monte Bolca, were for a time briefly reclassified as a species of ''Platinx'' (''P. gigas''), although they are now known to be distinct.

References

Monotypic prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Pachyrhizodontidae Ypresian genus first appearances Eocene genus extinctions Eocene fish of Europe Eocene fish of Asia Fossils of Italy Fossils of Syria Fossils of Turkmenistan Fossil taxa described in 1835 Taxa named by Louis Agassiz {{Crossognathiformes-stub