Thoracopteridae

Fossil of Thoracopterus magnificus at the Natural History Museum of Bergamo.

• Austria
• Italy
• China

The Thoracopteridae are an extinct fish family of the subclass of Neuflosser ( Neopterygii ) that occurred in the lower and middle Triassic in the tropical regions of the surface Palaeotethys. As the recent Flying Fish ( Exocoetidae ) were the Thoracopteridae able to gliding.

Features

As the Flying Fish had the Thoracopteridae a pair of enormously enlarged pectoral fins and an asymmetrical, deeply forked caudal fin with significantly longer lower lobe. Similarly, the advanced flying fish of the subfamily Cypselurinae their ventral fins were enlarged, so that the animals " four leaves " were. With the exception of the Thoracopterus Thoracopteridae in contrast to the flying fish were without scales. Temporal bone and parietal bone were missing. The paired frontal bone was widened laterally as in the flying fish. The jockstrap was almost vertical. The fin rays of dorsal and anal fin were segmented only at the distal section, their number corresponded to the number of fins carrier. The anal fin was largely regressed, reduced their fins carrier.

Since the flying fish need for their active lifestyle water temperatures of 20 ° C and above, taking the also for the Thoracopteridae.

System

Despite the external similarity, the Thoracopteridae are not related to the appearing only in the Eocene recent flying fish. Its viscosity has rather developed convergent each other twice. The American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson orders the Thoracopteridae in his standard work Fishes of the World to the Perleidiformes. Guang - Hui Xu and colleagues showed in their description of the Chinese Thoracopteriden Potanichthys that allowed by the preservation of parts of the neurocranium first time a detailed cladistic analysis, assign the group neither the Perleidiformes still the Luganoiiformes, but found clear evidence for a position of Thoracopteridae in the core group of Neuflosser ( Neopterygii ). The Thoracopteridae are then basal than the Luganoiiformes but more advanced than the Peltopleuriformes.

True bony fish ( Teleostei )

Knochenganoiden ( Holostei )

† Luganoiiformes

† Thoracopteridae

† Peltopleuriformes

† Perleidiformes

† Pholidopleuriformes

" Thoracopterus " martinisi ( Middle Triassic of Italy)

" Thoracopterus " magnificus

Gigantopterus ( Middle Triassic of Austria )

Potanichthys ( Lower Triassic of China)

Thoracopterus ( Middle Triassic of Austria and Italy)