''Vango'' 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 ...

milkfish The milkfish (''Chanos chanos'') is a widespread species of ray-finned fish found throughout the Indo-Pacific. It is the sole living species in the family Chanidae, and the only living member of the genus ''Chanos''. The repeating scientific na ...

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 ...

Lac Kinkony and Anembalemba members of the

Maevarano Formation The Maevarano Formation is a Late Cretaceous sedimentary formation (geology), rock formation found in the Mahajanga Province of northwestern Madagascar. It is most likely Maastrichtian in age, and records a seasonal, semiarid environment with rive ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

. The type (and sole) species is ''Vango fahiny''.

Discovery and naming

Matt Friedman was the first to recognize the presence of a gonorynchiform species in the Maevarano fauna, and Murray ''et al.'' (2023) named and described ''Vango fahiny'' shortly after. The material that was referred to ''Vango'' by Murray ''et al.'' (2023) includes opercles, hyomandibulae, frontals, basioccipitals, vertebrae, and parts of the pectoral girdle. No known articulated specimens exist; the species is only known from isolated elements. The word ''Vango'' means "skull" in Malagasy, but in western Madagascar it also refers to

(''Chanos chanos'') and bonefish ('' Albula sp.''). The species name means "ancient" in Malagasy, and thus the full binomial name translates roughly to "ancient milkfish".

Description

''Vango'' is similar to the extant milkfish (''

Chanos chanos Chanos may refer to: * ''Chanos'' (fish), a genus of milkfish * Chanos-Curson, a commune of the Drôme, a department in southeastern France * Chanos, Zamora, a municipality in Spain * George Chanos (born 1958), American attorney and politician ...

'') but can be easily distinguished from that species by numerous features, such as the basioccipital and maxilla being relatively shorter than those of ''C. chanos'', and the opercle being rounder overall and having a shorter auricular process. Murray ''et al.'' (2023) estimated that ''Vango'' was able to reach a maximum size of around 8 kg in mass and 1 meter in length, slightly smaller than its modern relative ''C. chanos.''

Paleobiology

The remains of ''Vango fahiny'' are known from both the Lac Kinkony and Anembalemba members of the

. The Lac Kinkony preserves a series of tidally-influenced deposits that were likely a brackish estuary during the

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...

, however the Anembalemba was more inland and likely represents a freshwater river system in a seasonally dry tropical climate. The presence of ''Vango'' remains in both freshwater and marine influenced sediments indicate that it was somewhat

euryhaline Euryhaline organisms are able to adapt to a wide range of salinities. An example of a euryhaline fish is the short-finned molly, '' Poecilia sphenops'', which can live in fresh water, brackish water, or salt water. The green crab ('' Carcinus m ...

, similar to its extant relative ''Chanos chanos.'' The waters in which ''Vango'' lived in were shared with various other fish species, including gar (''

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 ...

'') and bonefish ('' Paralbula''). Other aquatic vertebrates from both the Lac Kinkony and Anembalemba members include the frog ''

Beelzebufo ''Beelzebufo'' ( or ) (meaning "devil toad") is an extinct genus of hyloid frog from the Late Cretaceous Berivotra and Maevarano Formations, approximately 70 million years ago in what is now Madagascar. The type species is ''B. ampinga'', and ...

'', the side-necked turtle '' Kinkonychelys'', the snake '' Kelyophis'', and the crocodylimorph ''

Mahajangasuchus ''Mahajangasuchus'' is an extinct genus of crocodyliform which had blunt, laterally compressed and serrated teeth. The type species, ''M. insignis'', lived during the Late Cretaceous; its fossils have been found in the Maevarano Formation in nort ...

.''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q125255457 Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Chanidae Cretaceous Madagascar Fossil taxa described in 2023