''Koonwarria manifrons'' is an extinct genus of

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...

that lived in a polar lake in what is now

Koonwarra, Victoria Koonwarra is a town in the South Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. At the , Koonwarra had a population of 404. The town straddles the South Gippsland Highway. Located around 128 km southeast of Melbourne, the town was served by rail ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

during the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pro ...

epoch. Fossils have been retrieved from the

Strzelecki Group The Halibut Field, is an oil field, within the Gippsland Basin. The oil field is located approximately 64 km offshore of southeastern Australia. The total area of this field is 26.9 km2 and is composed of 10 mappable units. Geologic h ...

.Waldman, Michael. Fish from the freshwater Lower Cretaceous of Victoria, Australia: with comments on the palaeo-environment. No. 9. Palaeontological Association, 1971

/ref> ''Koonwarria manifrons'' shares many anatomical similarities with the family Archaeomaenidae, and is assumed to be descended from the archaeomaenids, but, is regarded as distinct enough to be placed in its own

monotypic family In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

, Koonwarriidae.

References

External links

* Prehistoric teleostei Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Cretaceous bony fish Early Cretaceous fish Early Cretaceous animals of Oceania Early Cretaceous Australia Cretaceous animals of Australia Freshwater fish genera

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species). It is one of the modern descendan ...

Prehistoric fish of Australia Early Cretaceous genus first appearances Early Cretaceous genus extinctions Fossil taxa described in 1971 Fish described in 1971 {{Cretaceous-fish-stub