''Bananogmius'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...

that lived in what is today

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

during the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger 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 ''creta'', the ...

. It lived in the

Western Interior Seaway The Western Interior Seaway (also called the Cretaceous Seaway, the Niobraran Sea, the North American Inland Sea, and the Western Interior Sea) was a large inland sea that split the continent of North America into two landmasses. The ancient sea, ...

, which split

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

in two during the Late

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

.Fielitz C, Shimada K. 1999. A new species of ''Bananogmius'' (Teleostei; Tselfatiformes) from the Upper Cretaceous Carlile Shale of western Kansas. ''Journal of Paleontology'' 73(3): 504-511.Taverne L. 2001. Révision du genre ''Bananogmius'' (Teleostei, Tselfatiiformes), poisson marin du Crétecé supérior d'Amérique du Nord et d'Europe. ''Geodiversitas'' 23(1):17-40.

Description

As with many plethodids, ''Bananogmius'' had a thin body reminiscent of the modern angelfish, dozens of small

teeth A tooth ( : teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, tear ...

, and an extremely high

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

.Everhart, Mike (23 Aug 2011). "Plethodids". Oceans of Kansas. Retrieved 28 April 2014.

References

External links

*http://www.nationalgeographic.com/seamonsters/timeline/#bananogmius Tselfatiiformes Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Late Cretaceous fish of North America Fossils of the United States Natural history of Kansas Cretaceous bony fish Fossil taxa described in 1940 Mooreville Chalk {{paleo-rayfinned-fish-stub