''Cheirothrix lewisii'' is a
species of prehistoric flying ray-finned fish that is included in the
order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
* Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...
Alepisauriformes
Aulopiformes is a diverse order of marine ray-finned fish consisting of some 15 extant and several prehistoric families with about 45 genera and over 230 species. The common names grinners, lizardfishes and allies, or aulopiforms are sometimes u ...
, all the members of which are
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 ...
. It dates back to the
Late Cretaceous and its
fossilised remains were found in fish-rich fossil deposits in
Lebanon.
Description
The fossilised remains of ''Cheirothrix lewisii'' were found in limestone strata in Lebanon dating back about 99 million years. This fish was first described by
James William Davis in 1887 and was named in honour of Professor E. R. Lewis of the
American College in Beirut.
Professor Lewis had originally found the fossil at Sahel Alma on
Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon ( ar, جَبَل لُبْنَان, ''jabal lubnān'', ; syr, ܛܘܪ ܠܒ݂ܢܢ, ', , ''ṭūr lewnōn'' french: Mont Liban) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above in elevation, with its peak at .
Geography
The Mount Le ...
. In this famous fossil location, about sixty species of fish have been found, none of them known from elsewhere in the world.
''Cheirothrix lewisii'' is characterized by enormous
pectoral fins and the ventral lobe of the tail fin is also much enlarged. It seems likely that these fish could launch themselves out of the water and glide hundreds of metres (yards) through the air, probably to evade
predators.
[
]
Distribution
During the Cretaceous era, sea levels were much higher than they are now. The fish remains at Sahel Alma are very well preserved. The rock is a fine-grained limestone found in an area much folded and faulted and is laid down in thick beds. The fish may have died because of a localized shortage of oxygen. Five specimens of ''Cheirothrix lewisii'' were found, each preserved in such detail that the fifty or so vertebrae can be counted[
Another member of the genus, ''Cheirothrix libanicus'', is found in the same fossil bed and other members of the genus are known from 84-million-year-old deposits in Germany.][
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5089714
Prehistoric teleostei