''Parapsephurus'' is an extinct genus of

paddlefish Paddlefish (family Polyodontidae) are a family of ray-finned fish belonging to order Acipenseriformes, and one of two living groups of the order alongside sturgeons (Acipenseridae). They are distinguished from other fish by their elongated rost ...

in the family Polyodontidae. Currently the only known species in this genus is the type species, ''Parapsephurus willybemisi.'' ''P. willybemisi'' is known a nearly complete specimen from the

Tanis Tanis ( ; ; ) or San al-Hagar (; ; ; or or ; ) is the Greek name for ancient Egyptian ''ḏꜥn.t'', an important archaeological site in the northeastern Nile Delta of ancient Egypt, Egypt, and the location of a city of the same name. Tanis ...

locality of the

Hell Creek Formation The Hell Creek Formation is an intensively studied division of mostly Upper Cretaceous and some lower Paleocene rocks in North America, named for exposures studied along Hell Creek, near Jordan, Montana. The Formation (stratigraphy), formation s ...

in North Dakota, USA, which dates to the late

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...

stage of the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent 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 ''cre ...

, approximately 66 million years ago. The name ''Parapsephurus'' refers to the similarities between the short gill arches of this genus and the more recently extinct paddlefish '' Psephurus,'' also known as the Chinese paddlefish. The type species, ''P. willybemisi'', is named in honor of William E. Bemis, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and curator of fishes at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, who has conducted extensive research on paddlefish. The rostrum of the holotype specimen is around in length, with a total body length of around . The species is placed in the clade Polyodonti, which includes all polyodontids other than the most primitive genus '' Protopsephurus''. Like ''Psephurus'' and other extinct paddlefish genera, the genus was likely

piscivorous A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that primarily eats fish. Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evolution (via water-bound amphibians during the Devonian period); insectivory came next; then in time, the more terrestrially adapted rept ...

, feeding on fish, rather than planktivorous like '' Polyodon''.

References

Cretaceous bony fish Prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Acipenseriformes Fossil taxa described in 2023 {{Acipenseriformes-stub