Biology:Coccocephalichthys

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Short description: Extinct genus of fishes


Coccocephalichthys
Temporal range: Bashkirian
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Class:
Order:
Family:
Coccocephalichthyidae

Fowler, 1951
Genus:
Coccocephalichthys

Whitley, 1940
Type species
Coccocephalus wildi
Watson, 1925
Other species
  • C. baldwini (Poplin, 1974)
  • C. tessellatus Beltan, 1981
  • C. wildi (Watson, 1925)
Synonyms
  • Coccocephalus Watson, 1925
    (non Coccocephalus Fieber, 1860)
  • Cocconiscus White & Moy-Thomas, 1940

Coccocephalichthys is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish from the Carboniferous period. The type species, C. wildi, lived during the Bashkirian age of the Pennsylvanian epoch in what is now Lancashire, United Kingdom.[2]

Ecology & evolution

A specimen of C. wildi preserved fossilized brain and nerve tissue, which shows that the forebrain in this ray-finned fish was evaginated, a feature otherwise not known in actinopterygians. The results show that the everted forebrain of modern ray-fins evolved later than previously thought.[2]

Taxonomy

The type species was first described as Coccocephalus wildi in 1925 by David Meredith Seares Watson, but because Coccocephalus is preoccupied (for an extant hemipteran insect), both Gilbert Percy Whitley[3] and Errol White & James Alan Moy-Thomas[4] proposed a new genus name in 1940. Because the article introducing the name Coccocephalichthys Whitley, 1940 was published before the article erecting the name Cocconiscus White & Moy-Thomas, 1940, the former became the valid new genus name for the Carboniferous fish.

  • Family Coccocephalichthyidae Fowler, 1951 [Cocconiscidae Romer, 1945][5]
    • Genus Coccocephalichthys Whitley, 1940 [Coccocephalus Watson, 1925 non Fieber, 1860; Cocconiscus White & Moy-Thomas, 1940]
      • C. baldwini (Poplin, 1974) [Coccocephalus baldwini (Poplin, 1974); Cocconiscus baldwini Poplin, 1974]
      • C. tessellatus Beltan, 1981
      • C. wildi (Watson, 1925) [Coccocephalus wildi Watson, 1925; Cocconiscus wildi (Watson, 1925)]

See also

  • Prehistoric fish
  • List of prehistoric bony fish

References

  1. "Palaeonisciformes". Paleobiology Database. http://paleodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=checkTaxonInfo&taxon_no=34963&is_real_user=1. Retrieved November 17, 2012. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Figueroa, Rodrigo T.; Goodvin, Danielle; Kolmann, Matthew A.; Coates, Michael I.; Caron, Abigail M.; Friedman, Matt; Giles, Sam (2023). "Exceptional fossil preservation and evolution of the ray-finned fish brain". Nature 614 (7948): 486–491. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05666-1. PMID 36725931. Bibcode2023Natur.614..486F. 
  3. Whitley, Gilbert P. (1940). "The nomenclator zoologicus and some new fish names". Australian Naturalist 10: 241–243. .
  4. White, Errol I.; Moy-Thomas, James A. (1940). "XLVIII.—Notes on the nomenclature of fossil fishes.—Part I. Homonyms A-C". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 11 5 (30): 502–507. doi:10.1080/00222934008527067. 
  5. Part 7- Vertebrates. http://mave.tweakdsl.nl/tn/genera7.html. Retrieved 30 June 2016. 

Wikidata ☰ Q5139168 entry