''Apocopodon'' is an extinct genus of

eagle ray The eagle rays are a group of cartilaginous fishes in the family Myliobatidae, consisting mostly of large species living in the open ocean rather than on the sea bottom. Eagle rays feed on mollusks and crustaceans, crushing their shells with the ...

from the

Paleocene epoch The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek ''palaió ...

of the

Paleogene period The Paleogene ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning o ...

. It contains a single species ''A. sericeus''. It was originally described from the

Danian The Danian is the oldest age or lowest stage of the Paleocene Epoch or Series, of the Paleogene Period or System, and of the Cenozoic Era or Erathem. The beginning of the Danian (and the end of the preceding Maastrichtian) is at the Cretace ...

-aged Marina Farinha Formation of the Paraíba Basin of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Recently, the genus was reported in

Kingstree, South Carolina Kingstree is a city and the county seat of Williamsburg County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 3,328 at the 2010 census. History The original town was laid out as Williamsburg by the Lords Proprietors in colonial times, but ...

probably derived from the lower paleocene-aged

Rhems Formation The Rhems Formation, also called the Rhems Shale, is a geologic formation in South Carolina. The Rhems Formation is considered part of the Black Mingo Group. It was named after Rhems, SC which is located five miles from the type locality at Perk ...

, significantly extending the geographic range of the genus.Santana, Felipe & Cicimurri, David & Barbosa, José. (2011). New material of Apocopodon sericeus cope, 1886 (myliobatiformes, myliobatidae) from the Paraíba Basin (Northeastern Brazil), and South Carolina (USA) with a reanalysis of the species. PalArch's Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology. 8. 1-20.

References

Myliobatidae Prehistoric cartilaginous fish genera {{Paleo-cartilaginous-fish-stub