''Priscosturion'' is a genus of

sturgeon Sturgeon (from Old English ultimately from Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European *''str̥(Hx)yón''-) is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the ...

from the

Judith River Formation The Judith River Formation is a fossil-bearing geologic formation in Montana, and is part of the Montana Group. It dates to the Late Cretaceous, between 79 and 75.3 million years ago, corresponding to the "Judithian" land vertebrate age. It was ...

. It lived during the

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campa ...

stage of 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 ...

some 77.5 million years ago. Initially called ''Psammorhynchus'', its describers

Lance Grande Roger Lansing Grande (born February 16, 1951), more commonly known as Lance Grande, is an evolutionary biologist and curatorial scientist. His research and work is focused on Paleontology, Ichthyology, Systematics and Evolution. He is well known fo ...

and Eric J. Hilton renamed the animal in 2009. The fish belongs to the subfamily Priscosturioninae within the larger family

Acipenseridae Sturgeon (from Old English ultimately from Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European *''str̥(Hx)yón''-) is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the ...

. ''Priscosturion'' is only known from one species, ''P. longipinnis''.

Description

''Priscosturion'' was around in overall length. Its type specimen is rather complete. It is notable for its rather robust vertebrae.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q114355622, from2=Q21357703 Late Cretaceous fish of North America Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Fossil taxa described in 2009