''Prionolepis'' is a genus of prehistoric

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 ...

belonging to the order

Alepisauriformes Aulopiformes is a diverse order of marine ray-finned fish consisting of some 15 extant and several prehistoric families with about 45 genera and over 230 species. The common names grinners, lizardfishes and allies, or aulopiforms are sometimes u ...

Fossil record

These ray-finned fish lived in the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian - Turonian, about 95-90 million years ago). Fossils have been found in Lebanon and England.

Description

''Prionolepis'' could reach a length of about . Body was long and tapered, but rather strong and robust, with a series of high serrate scales (hence the name Prionolepis, from the Greek "saw scale"). His muzzle was pointed and very elongated, and jaw was slightly prognathous.

Species

Species within this genus include: * ''†Prionolepis angustus'' Egerton, 1850 * ''†Prionolepis cataphractus'' (Pictet and Humbert, 1866)A.J. Bouco
Evolutionary Paleobiology of Behavior and Coevolution
/ref> * ''†Prionolepis laniatus'' Davis, 1887

Bibliography

* Dixon, F., 1850, The Geology and Fossils of the Tertiary and Cretaceous Formations of Sussex, p. 360-377. * Gallo, V., H. M. A. d. Silva, & F. J. d. Figueiredo. 2005. The interrelationships of †Dercetidae (Neoteleostei, Aulopifromes). pp. 101–104. IN: Poyato-Ariza, F. J. (ed.) Extended Abstracts. Fourth International Meeting on Mesozoic Fishes - Systematics, Homology, and Nomenclature. Ediciones Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Miraflores de la Sierra, Madrid, Spain August 8–14, 2005, 310 pp. * Goody, P. C. 1969. The relationships of certain Upper Cretaceous teleosts with special reference to the myctophoids. 7:1-255. Age: Cretaceous-Cretaceous Late; Cretaceous-Cretaceous Late-Senonian; Cretaceous-Cretaceous Late-Turonian; Cretaceous-Cretaceous Late-Cenomanian middle;. * Hay, O. P. 1903. On a collection of Upper Cretaceous fishes from Mount Lebanon, Syria, with descriptions of four new genera and nineteen new species. American Museum of Natural History, Bulletin 19:395-452. * Hilda M. A. Silva; Valéria Gallo: ''Taxonomic review and phylogenetic analysis of Enchodontoidei (Teleostei: Aulopiformes).'' Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências * Joseph S. Nelson: ''Fishes of the World''. John Wiley & Sons, 2006, * Karl Albert Frickhinger: ''Fossilien Atlas Fische'', Mergus-Verlag, Melle, 1999, * Larson, P. L. 1988. Famous fossil fish faunas. Mid-America Paleontology Society Digest 11:1-10. * Peter L. Forey, Lu Yi, Colin Patterson and Cliff E. Davies, 2003. Fossil fishes from the Cenomanian (Upper Cretaceous) of Namoura, Lebanon. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology (2003), 1:4:227-330 Cambridge University Press The Natural History Museum

References

Prehistoric aulopiformes Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Cretaceous bony fish Prehistoric fish of Africa {{Alepisauriformes-stub