''Cyranichthys'' is an extinct
genus of marine
ray-finned fish known from the
Late Cretaceous of central Africa and western Europe.
It was a member of
Dercetidae, a group of elongated
aulopiforms.
It contains three species:
* ''C. congolensis''
(Casier, 1965) -
Cenomanian
The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous Series. An age is a unit of geochronology; it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the s ...
of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (
Kipala Formation) (=''
Dercetis
Dercetis is the name of a nymph in Greek mythology.
Mythology
In Statius' ''Thebaid'', she is portrayed as a sexually aggressive figure who ravishes a youth named Lapithaon despite his being too young and not mature enough for a sexual rela ...
congolensis''
Casier, 1965)
* ''C. ornatissimus''
(Casier, 1965) - Cenomanian of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kipala Formation) (=''Dercetis ornatissimus''
Casier, 1965)
* ''C. jagti''
Taverne & Goolaerts, 2015 -
Maastrichtian of
Belgium and the
Netherlands (
Maastricht Formation
The Maastricht Formation ( Dutch: ''Formatie van Maastricht''; abbreviation: MMa), named after the city of Maastricht in the Netherlands, is a geological formation in the Netherlands and Belgium whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous, wi ...
)
Previously, this genus was thought to be represented by a single species known from the Cenomanian of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was previously classified in ''Dercetis'' but placed in its own genus in 1987. However, fossils of the later-described ''C. jagti'' confirmed the persistence of the species up to the end of the Cretaceous in Europe. A second Congolese species was later reclassified into this genus as well.
The living animal would have had a
gar-like or
saury-like appearance, although its closest living relatives are
lancetfish and
lizardfish.
References
paleodb
Dercetidae
Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera
Late Cretaceous bony fish
Late Cretaceous fish of Africa
Cretaceous fish of Europe
Cenomanian genus first appearances
Maastrichtian genus extinctions
Fossils of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Fossils of the Netherlands
Fossils of Belgium
Fossil taxa described in 1987
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