Extinct family of ray-finned fishes
Plethodidae is an extinct family of teleost fish that existed during the Late Cretaceous period. Fossils are known from North America , North Africa , and Europe .
The billfish -like Rhamphoichthys taxidiotis Plethodids possessed thin, angelfish -like bodies and often had high dorsal fins which made them distinctive from other types of fish. Their skeletons were partially cartilaginous , though the amount varied from one species to another.[ 2]
Plethodidae contains the following genera:[ 3]
^ GBIF. “Plethodidae – Checklist View.” Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Global Biodiversity Information Facility, 2014.
^ Everhart, Mike (23 Aug 2011). "Plethodids" . Oceans of Kansas . Retrieved 28 April 2014 .
^ Gayet, Mireille; Louis Taverne (2005). "Phylogenetical relationships and paleozoogeography of the marine Cretaceous Tselfatiiformes (Teleostei, Clupeocephala)" . Cybium . 29 (1): 65–87. Archived from the original on 2014-04-29.
^ Cooper, Samuel L. A.; Norton, Jack L. (2023-12-01). "Youngest occurrence of a plethodid fish (Teleostei: Tselfatiiformes: Plethodidae) from the Maastrichtian of North Africa" . Cretaceous Research . 152 : 105673. doi :10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105673 . ISSN 0195-6671 .
^ El Hossny, T.; Cavin, L.; Kaplan, U.; Schwermann, A. H.; Samankassou, E.; Friedman, M. (2023). "The first articulated skeletons of enigmatic Late Cretaceous billfish-like actinopterygians" . Royal Society Open Science . 10 (12). doi :10.1098/rsos.231296 . PMC 10698480 .