''Prionolepis'' is a genus of prehistoric

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 ...

belonging to the order Alepisauriformes.

Fossil record

These ray-finned fish lived in the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian - Turonian, about 95-90 million years ago). Fossils have been found in Lebanon and England.

Description

''Prionolepis'' could reach a length of about . Body was long and tapered, but rather strong and robust, with a series of high serrate scales (hence the name Prionolepis, from the Greek "saw scale"). His muzzle was pointed and very elongated, and jaw was slightly prognathous.

Species

Species within this genus include: * ''†Prionolepis angustus'' Egerton, 1850 * ''†Prionolepis cataphractus'' (Pictet and Humbert, 1866)A.J. Bouco
Evolutionary Paleobiology of Behavior and Coevolution
/ref> * ''†Prionolepis laniatus'' Davis, 1887

Bibliography

* Dixon, F., 1850, The Geology and Fossils of the Tertiary and Cretaceous Formations of Sussex, p. 360-377. * Gallo, V., H. M. A. d. Silva, & F. J. d. Figueiredo. 2005. The interrelationships of †Dercetidae (Neoteleostei, Aulopifromes). pp. 101–104. IN: Poyato-Ariza, F. J. (ed.) Extended Abstracts. Fourth International Meeting on Mesozoic Fishes - Systematics, Homology, and Nomenclature. Ediciones Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Miraflores de la Sierra, Madrid, Spain August 8–14, 2005, 310 pp. * Goody, P. C. 1969. The relationships of certain Upper Cretaceous teleosts with special reference to the myctophoids. 7:1-255. Age: Cretaceous-Cretaceous Late; Cretaceous-Cretaceous Late-Senonian; Cretaceous-Cretaceous Late-Turonian; Cretaceous-Cretaceous Late-Cenomanian middle;. * Hay, O. P. 1903. On a collection of Upper Cretaceous fishes from Mount Lebanon, Syria, with descriptions of four new genera and nineteen new species. American Museum of Natural History, Bulletin 19:395-452. * Hilda M. A. Silva; Valéria Gallo: ''Taxonomic review and phylogenetic analysis of Enchodontoidei (Teleostei: Aulopiformes).'' Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências * Joseph S. Nelson: ''Fishes of the World''. John Wiley & Sons, 2006, * Karl Albert Frickhinger: ''Fossilien Atlas Fische'', Mergus-Verlag, Melle, 1999, * Larson, P. L. 1988. Famous fossil fish faunas. Mid-America Paleontology Society Digest 11:1-10. * Peter L. Forey, Lu Yi, Colin Patterson and Cliff E. Davies, 2003. Fossil fishes from the Cenomanian (Upper Cretaceous) of Namoura, Lebanon. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology (2003), 1:4:227-330 Cambridge University Press The Natural History Museum

References

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species or languages). It is one of the mo ...

Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Cretaceous bony fish Prehistoric fish of Africa {{Aulopiformes-stub