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Amphiplaga brachyptera COPE, 1877
Images:
By oilshale
Taxonomy
Trout-perch
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopteri Cope 1871
Order: Percopsiformes Berg 1937
Family: Percopsidae Agassiz 1850
Genus: Amphiplaga
Species: Amphiplaga brachyptera
Author Citation COPE, 1877
Geological Time Scale
Eon: Phanerozoic
Era: Cenozoic
Period: Paleogene
Sub Period: None
Epoch: Eocene
International Age: Ypresian
Stratigraphy
Green River Formation
Fossil Lake, F-2
Provenance
Acquired by: Purchase/Trade
Dimensions
Length: 6.8 cm
Location
Kemmerer
Lincoln County
Wyoming
United States
- kemmerer
- wyoming
- ypresian
- erismatopterus
- eocene
- amphiplaga
- green river
- lake gosiute
- tff-oilshale-ch1860
Comments
Amphiplaga is one of the rarer of the Green River fish fossils, making up some 1% of the total from Fossil Lake, its only known location. Amphiplaga belongs together with its close relative Erismatopterus to the family Percopsidae within the order Percopsiformes.
Amphiplaga is best distinguished from Erismatopterus by its dorsal fin, which has three hard spines (the first one is very small) followed by 9 or 10 soft rays. Erismatopterus usually has two hard spines followed by 6 or 7 soft spines. Amphiplaga can reach up to 15cm with an average length of about 10cm while Erismatopterus does not exceed 12cm with an average length of about 5cm.
The Order Percopsiformes is a small order of North American freshwater fishes that includes three families: Amblyopsidae (cavefishes); Aphredoderidae (pirate perches); and Percopsidae (trout-perches). Closely related to neither trout nor perch, trout-perches have characteristics of both the trout and perch families. They exhibit characters of the salmonids, such as an adipose fin, cycloid scales, and soft fin rays, as well as characters of the percids, such as dorsal and anal fin spines, and ctenoid scales.
Trout-perch are generally silvery in appearance, often with a partially transparent appearance, and relatively large heads and eyes. They are small fish with weak fin spines, and an adipose fin similar to those of trouts. They feed on insects and small crustaceans.
Fossil percopsids are only known from North America, the current home of the extant genus Percopsis
References:
E. D. Cope (1877) A contribution to the knowledge of the ichthyological fauna of the Green River shales. Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey 3(4):807-819.
Grande, L. (1984): PALEONTOLOGY OF THE GREEN RIVER FORMATION, WITH A REVIEW OF THE FISH FAUNA. THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF WYOMING, BULLETIN 63,
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