''Eodiaphyodus'' is a genus of
Elopiform
The Elopiformes are the order of ray-finned fish including the tarpons, tenpounders, and ladyfish, as well as a number of extinct types. They have a long fossil record, easily distinguished from other fishes by the presence of an additional s ...
fish that is classified in the suborder
Albuloidea. It is known from
Late Cretaceous sediments across
Africa,
and it crushed its food with bony plates found in the back of its throat. The type species is ''E. granulosus'' and it was named and described in 1952.
[Arambourg, C., (1952). Les vertébrés fossiles des gisements de phosphates (Maroc – Algérie – Tunisie). ''Notes et Mémoires du Service géologique du Maroc'' 92, 1– 805 372.]
The oldest known specimens of ''Eodiaphyodus'' were found in
Campanian rocks in
Angola and
Nigeria,
and it is believed that the genus originated in this part of Africa before dispersing northwards (via the
Atlantic coast of
West Africa or via the
trans-Saharan seaway) to reach
northwestern Africa
The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
by the
Maastrichtian.
See also
*''
Coriops''
*
Flora and fauna of the Maastrichtian stage
This is an incomplete list that briefly describes vertebrates that were Extant taxon, extant during the Maastrichtian, a stage of the Late Cretaceous Period which extended from 72.1 to 66 million years before present. This was the last time pe ...
*
List of prehistoric bony fish (Osteichthyes)
References
Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera
Cretaceous bony fish
Elopiformes
Fossils of Morocco
{{Elopiformes-stub
Fossil taxa described in 1952