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Eekaulostomus

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(Redirected from Eekaulostomidae) Extinct genus of marine fish

Eekaulostomus
Temporal range: Early Paleocene, 63 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Photograph and illustration of the type specimen
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Syngnathiformes
Suborder: Syngnathoidei
Family: †Eekaulostomidae
Cantalice & Alvarado-Ortega, 2016
Genus: †Eekaulostomus
Cantalice & Alvarado-Ortega, 2016
Species: †E. cuevasae
Binomial name
†Eekaulostomus cuevasae
Cantalice & Alvarado-Ortega, 2016

Eekaulostomus is an extinct genus of marine fish from the Paleocene of Chiapas, Mexico. It contains one species, E. cuevasae, and is the only member of the family Eekaulostomidae.

Eekaulostomus was a syngnathiform, a member of the same order as modern trumpetfish, cornetfish, pipefish, and seahorses. It can be distinguished from other syngnathiforms by the prominent scutes covering its body, giving it an armored appearance. Its exact phylogenetic placement among the sygnanthiforms is debated, although it is known to belong to the "long-snouted" group (Syngnathoidei); it was initially recovered as allied with the trumpetfish superfamily (Aulostomoidea), but more recent studies have found it to be more closely related to the pipefish superfamily (Syngnathoidea).

The only known specimen of Eekaulostomus was found in exposures of the Tenejapa-Lacandón Unit in the Belisario Domínguez quarry near the ancient Mayan city of Palenque. It inhabited the Caribbean region in the Early Paleocene, just a few million years after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The relative proximity of the locality to the Chicxulub crater indicates that marine ecosystems had likely recovered rapidly after the event, and that syngnathiformes are an ancient clade.

Life restoration

The genus name originates from eek, the Mayan word for star, and Aulostomus; this references its star-shaped scutes and close resemblance to the latter genus. The species name honors Mexican anthropologist Martha Cuevas García.

References

  1. "PBDB". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2024-01-22.
  2. ^ Cantalice, K. M.; Alvarado-Ortega, J. (2016). "Eekaulostomus cuevasae gen. and sp. nov., an ancient armored trumpetfish (Aulostomoidea) from Danian (Paleocene) marine deposits of Belisario Domínguez, Chiapas, southeastern Mexico". Palaeontologia Electronica. doi:10.26879/682. ISSN 1094-8074.
  3. ^ Brownstein, C D (2023). "Syngnathoid Evolutionary History and the Conundrum of Fossil Misplacement". Integrative Organismal Biology. 5 (1): obad011. doi:10.1093/iob/obad011. ISSN 2517-4843. PMC 10210065. PMID 37251781.
  4. Murray, Alison M. (2022-12-31). "Re-description and phylogenetic relationships of † Protosyngnathus sumatrensis (Teleostei: Syngnathoidei), a freshwater pipefish from the Eocene of Sumatra, Indonesia". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 20 (1): 1–16. doi:10.1080/14772019.2022.2113832. ISSN 1477-2019. S2CID 252664420.
  5. Cantalice, Kleyton M; Alvarado-Ortega, Jesús; Bellwood, David R; Siqueira, Alexandre C (2022-07-20). "Rising from the Ashes: The Biogeographic Origins of Modern Coral Reef Fishes". BioScience. 72 (8): 769–777. doi:10.1093/biosci/biac045. ISSN 0006-3568. PMC 9343231. PMID 35923187.
  6. Friedman, Matt; V. Andrews, James; Saad, Hadeel; El-Sayed, Sanaa (2023-06-16). "The Cretaceous–Paleogene transition in spiny-rayed fishes: surveying "Patterson's Gap" in the acanthomorph skeletal record André Dumont medalist lecture 2018". Geologica Belgica. doi:10.20341/gb.2023.002. ISSN 1374-8505.
Taxon identifiers
Eekaulostomus cuevasae
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