''Paralycoptera wui'' is an extinct species of basal osteoglossoid from Early

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

freshwater environments of what is now

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. ''P. wui'' was originally described as a lycopterid osteoglossomorph close to ''

Lycoptera ''Lycoptera'' is an extinct genus of fish that lived from the late Jurassic to Cretaceous periods in present-day China, North Korea, Mongolia and Siberia. It is known from abundant fossils representing sixteen species, which serve as important ind ...

'', though, later, on the basis of several well preserved specimens, Xu and Chang (2009) reassessed it as a basal osteoglossoid on the basis of better-preserved fossil material.XU, G.-H. and CHANG, M.-M. (2009), Redescription of †Paralycoptera wui Chang & Chou, 1977 (Teleostei: Osteoglossoidei) from the Early Cretaceous of eastern China. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 157: 83–106. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00532.x Xu and Chang also synonymized the second described species, ''P. changi'', as well as '' Tanolepis'' and '' Yungkangichthys hsitanensis'' (while neglecting the Japanese species, ''Y. macrodon''), alleging that all of them were too similar to ''P. wui'' to merit separate generic or specific status, and that any anatomical differences between these taxa were due to

taphonomic Taphonomy is the study of how organisms decay and become fossilized or preserved in the paleontological record. The term ''taphonomy'' (from Greek , 'burial' and , 'law') was introduced to paleontology in 1940 by Soviet scientist Ivan Efremov t ...

distortions of the specimens. In the same study, Xu and Chang also synonymized the related Japanese osteoglossomorph genus, '' Aokiichthys'', on the basis of the two genera having an almost identical number of

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

e, though they did not specify whether they were simply merging the two genera together, or if all the species within ''Aokiichthys'' were to be demoted as

synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of ''P. wui''.

References

Osteoglossiformes Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Cretaceous bony fish Early Cretaceous fish of Asia Prehistoric animals of China {{paleo-rayfinned-fish-stub