''Nardorex zorzini'' is an
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
nektonic
Nekton or necton (from the ) refers to the actively swimming aquatic organisms in a body of water. The term was proposed by German biologist Ernst Haeckel to differentiate between the active swimmers in a body of water, and the passive organisms ...
predatory
aulopiformid fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
from
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...
Italy.
[Taverne, L. "Les poissons crétacés de Nardò. 19. Nardorex zorzoni gen. et sp. nov.(Teleostei, Aulopiformes, Alepisauroidei)." Bollet. Mus. Civ. Stor. Natu. Ver. Geolo. Paleon. Preist 28 (2004): 29-40.]
Description
''Nardorex zorzini'' is a superficially mackerel-like animal whose overall anatomy places it within the order Aulopiformes. However, the details of its
osteology
Osteology () is the scientific study of bones, practised by osteologists. A subdiscipline of anatomy, anthropology, and paleontology, osteology is the detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, microbone morphology, funct ...
make its placement within Aulopiformes
problematic.
Distribution
Specimens of ''N. zorzini'' are found in
Campanian
The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous Epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campanian s ...
to
Maastrichtian
The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval from ...
-aged marine strata of
Nardo, Italy.
References
Aulopiformes
Enigmatic ray-finned fish taxa
Cretaceous bony fish
Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera
Cretaceous fish of Europe
{{Aulopiformes-stub