''Bobasatrania'' is an extinct

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 ...

of prehistoric

bony fish Osteichthyes (), popularly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes, which have skeletons primarily composed of cartilag ...

that survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event. Fossils of ''Bobasatrania'' were found in beds of

Changhsingian In the geologic time scale, the Changhsingian or Changxingian is the latest age or uppermost stage of the Permian. It is also the upper or latest of two subdivisions of the Lopingian Epoch or Series. The Changhsingian lasted from to 251.902 mill ...

(

late Permian Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

) to

Ladinian The Ladinian is a stage and age in the Middle Triassic series or epoch. It spans the time between Ma and ~237 Ma (million years ago). The Ladinian was preceded by the Anisian and succeeded by the Carnian (part of the Upper or Late Triassic). ...

(

Middle Triassic In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epochs of the Triassic period or the middle of three series in which the Triassic system is divided in chronostratigraphy. The Middle Triassic spans the time between Ma and ...

) age. It was most speciose during the

Early Triassic The Early Triassic is the first of three epochs of the Triassic Period of the geologic timescale. It spans the time between Ma and Ma (million years ago). Rocks from this epoch are collectively known as the Lower Triassic Series, which is a un ...

. The genus was named after the locality Bobasatrana in northeast

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

, from where the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

was described. Bobasatrania canadensis

The genus originated during the late

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleoz ...

, survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event, and underwent a

speciation Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within ...

event during the

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

(approx 240M years BP) in the shallow coastal waters off the

Pangaea Pangaea or Pangea () was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous approximately 335 million y ...

n supercontinent. Their

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s are therefore found throughout the world, with some of the best examples coming from the Wapiti Lake region of

British Columbia, Canada British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

. Past Lives: Chronicles of Canadian Paleontology They have a distinctive diamond-shaped body, forked tail and long thin

pectoral fins Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as see ...

. The larger species are up to in length, though there are also smaller species. The structure of their teeth suggests they fed on small shelled animals.

References

* Nielsen, Eigil. 1942. Studies on Triasslc Fishes from East Greenland. I. ''Glaucolepis'' and ''Boreosomus''. ''Palaeozoologica Groenlandica''. vol. I. * Nielsen, Eigil. 1947. Studies on Triassic Fishes from East Greenland. II. ''Australosomus'' and ''Birgeria''. ''Palaeozoologica Groenlandica''. vol. III. 204 Medd, fra Dansk Geol. Forening. København. Bd. 12.

952 Year 952 ( CMLII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – At the Reichstag in Augsburg (assembled by King Otto I), joined by German nob ...

* Stensiö, E. A:EON, 1921. Triassic Fishes from Spitsbergen. Part I. Vienna. * Stensiö, E. 1932. Triassic Fishes from East Greenland. Medd. om Grønland, Bd. 83, Nr. 3. * Stensiö, E. 1947. The sensory Lines and dermal Bones of the Cheek in Fishes and Amphibians. Stockholm, Kungl. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl., ser. 3, Bd. 22, no. 1. * Watson, D . M. S., 1928. On some Points in the Structure of Palaeonlscid and allied Fish. London, Zool. Soc. Proc, pt. 1. * Bürgin, T. 1992. Basal ray-finned fishes (Osteichthyes; Actinopterygii) from the Middle Triassic of Monte San Giorgio (Canton Tessin, Switzerland). ''Schweizerische Paläontologische Abhandlungen'' 114:1-164. Prehistoric fish of Africa Prehistoric fish of North America Prehistoric fish of Europe {{Triassic-fish-stub Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera

See also

References

Further reading