''Lampris zatima'' is the oldest known

opah Opahs, also commonly known as moonfish, sunfish (not to be confused with Molidae), kingfish, redfin ocean pan are large, colorful, deep-bodied pelagic lampriform fishes comprising the small family Lampridae (also spelled Lamprididae). The famil ...

of the genus ''

Lampris Opahs, also commonly known as moonfish, sunfish (not to be confused with Molidae), kingfish, redfin ocean pan are large, colorful, deep-bodied pelagic lampriform fishes comprising the small family Lampridae (also spelled Lamprididae). The famil ...

'', from the Late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

(the giant opah of the genus '' Megalampris'', of Late

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, is older). Its fossil record is rather poor, known primarily from isolated vertebral columns, and a few headless specimens. Alive, it is estimated to have been around 20 to 30 centimeters long. Mistakenly, it was later re-described as a

surfperch The surfperches are a family of perciform fishes, the Embiotocidae. They are mainly found in northeast Pacific Ocean (as far south as Baja California), but a few species (genera '' Ditrema'' and '' Neoditrema'') are found in the northwest Pacifi ...

, ''Dascles dassurus''.Jordan, David Starr, The Fossil Fishes of the Miocene of Southern California
/ref>

References

Lampridae Miocene fish of North America Fossil taxa described in 1920 {{Lampriformes-stub