''Sinosaurichthys'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of saurichthyid

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 h ...

, which existed in southwestern China during the Middle

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Year#Abbreviations yr and ya, Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 ...

(

Anisian In the geologic timescale, the Anisian is the lower stage or earliest age of the Middle Triassic series or epoch and lasted from million years ago until million years ago. The Anisian Age succeeds the Olenekian Age (part of the Lower Triassic ...

age). Fossils have been found in the Upper Member of the

Guanling Formation The Guanling Formation is a Middle Triassic (Anisian or Pelsonian in the regional chronostratigraphy) geologic formation in southwestern China. Description The formation encompasses two members. The first member is primarily calcareous muds ...

of two localities: Yangjuan of Panxian County,

Guizhou Province Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to ...

, and Dawazi of Luoping,

Yunnan Province Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...

, China. It was first named by Wu Feixiang, Sun Yuanlin, Xu Guanghui, Hao Weicheng, Jiang Dayong and Sun Zuoyu in 2010. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

is ''Sinosaurichthys longipectoralis''. There are two additional species, ''S. longimedialis'' and ''S. minuta''. The species ''Saurichthys spinosa'' from the

Middle Triassic In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epochs of the Triassic period or the middle of three series in which the Triassic system is divided in chronostratigraphy. The Middle Triassic spans the time between Ma and ...

of China may be closely related with ''Sinosaurichthys''. ''Sinosaurichthys'' is often treated as a subgenus of ''

Saurichthys ''Saurichthys'' (from el, σαῦρος , 'lizard' and el, ἰχθῦς 'fish') is an extinct genus of predatory ray-finned fish from the Triassic period. It type genus family Saurichthyidae (Changhsingian- Middle Jurassic), and the larges ...

'', rather than a genus.Tintori, A. 2013. A new species of ''Saurichthys'' (Actinopterygii) from the Middle Triassic (early Ladinian) of the northern Grigna Mountain (Lombardy, Italy). Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia. 119 (3): 287–302.

References

Fossil taxa described in 2010 Saurichthyiformes Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Triassic bony fish Triassic fish of Asia Anisian life Guanling Formation {{Triassic-fish-stub