Lepidotes
Fossil of Lepidotes elvensis
- Worldwide
Lepidotes is a genus of extinct bony fish occurred in the Toarcian ( Lower Jurassic ) in Europe. The genus was in 1843 set up by the Swiss-American naturalist Louis Agassiz basis of two fish species from the Posidonia Shale of Ohmden near Stuttgart and developed in the following years to a collection type ( engl. '' wastebasket '' genera ) of all possible Mesozoic ray-finned fishes, which were often poorly prepared, examined and diagnosed and often have to be classified as a noun dubium. In January 2012, the genus by the paleontologist Adriana López- Arbarello newly diagnosed, limited to four species from the Toarcian and reassigned the Lepisosteiformes (previously Semionotiformes ).
Features
Lepidotes species were relatively large fish ( > 0.5 m) with laterally compressed bodies and elongated head. Her eyes were small, pointed teeth with rounded ends. The maxilla ( upper jaw bone a ) was toothless, very short and wide. The body height was about 35 % of the standard length, head length approximately 30% of standard length. Pelvic fins, dorsal and anal fin were located on the rear half of the body, the abdominal peduncle after about 55% of standard length, the dorsal fin base by approximately 65 % and the anal fin by 75 % of the standard length. The dorsal fin was short and pointed, the ventral fins small, the pectoral fins slightly larger. The caudal fin was forked heterocercal and easily. Thick, rectangular and arranged in diagonal rows Ganoidschuppen were connected to each other via a hinge, and able to be moved relative to one another. The square infra orbital Talia ( bones around the eyes ) on the rear Orbita were longer than wide. Numerous arranged in rows Suborbitalia (bone below the eye socket) of different shapes and sizes covered the quadrate laterally. Lepidotes had only a paired Extrascapulare ( a skull bone ). The lateral line system extended into the eye region. The middle row of pores was in a groove between the Dermopteroticum ( dermal bones above the squamosal ) and the parietal bones.