''Crenilepis'' is an extinct genus 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 lived in the seas of present-day Europe during the Anisian stage of the Middle Triassic epoch.

Taxonomy

''Crenilepis'' was named by German paleontologist Wilhelm Dames in 1888 for a fragment of scales (SNSB-BSPG 2008 LXI 5) from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian) Lower Keuper of Würzburg, Bavaria, southern Germany. The genus name was misspelt as ''"Crenolepis"'' by Carus (1888), and some authors (Romer 1966; Gardiner 1967; Carroll 1988; Sepkoski 2002) erroneously believed that Carus's misspelling was a replacement name for ''Crenilepis''. However, Moser (2013) pointed out "''Crenolepis''" is a misspelling of ''Crenilepis'' because Carus (1888) cited Dames' 1888 work and just noted the genus as new.Moser, Markus (2013): Transfer of type specimens of fossil fishes to the Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology with some notes on their history of research. In: Zitteliana, Vol. A 53: S. 169-177 Strand (1929) claimed that Dames' genus was a junior homonym of "''Crenilepis'' Reis, Sitz.-Ber. Akad. Wiss. München 1887, fasc. 1. p. 40, t. 5, f. 3 (1887)" and coined ''Crenilepoides'' as a replacement name. However, Moser (2013) showed that this citation was in error, as no known works by Otto Maria Reis dealt with ''Crenilepis'' and the Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 1887 contained no works by Reis at all, rendering ''Crenilepis'' technically valid and ''Crenilepoides'' an unnecessary replacement name. The type species of ''Crenilepis'' is ''C. sandbergeri'', Sun et al. (2008) considered the type specimen of ''C. sandbergeri'' lost and also undiagnostic,Z. Y. Sun, A. Tintori, C. Lombardo, D. Y. Jiang, W. C. Hao, Y. L. Sun, F. X. Wu and M. Rusconi. 2008. A New Species of the Genus Colobodus Agassiz, 1844 (Osteichthyes, Actinopterygii) From the Pelsonian (Anisian, Middle Triassic) of Guizhou, South China. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 144(3):363-376 but Moser (2013) noted that the holotype is now in the collections of the Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie in Munich.

References

Middle Triassic fish Prehistoric neopterygii Anisian life {{triassic-fish-stub

Taxonomy

See also

References