Apholidotus ossna LUND

Taxonomy

"Garden Eel"

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopteri Cope 1871
Order: Tarrasiiformes sensu Lund & Poplin 2002
Family: Indet.
Genus: Apholidotus
Species: Apholidotus ossna (or ossuosus?)
Author Citation LUND in FRICKHINGER, 1991

Geological Time Scale

Eon: Phanerozoic
Era: Paleozoic
Period: Carboniferous
Sub Period: Mississippian
Epoch: Late
International Age: Serpukhovian

Stratigraphy

Big Snowy Group
Heath Formation

Provenance

Acquired by: Purchase/Trade

Dimensions

Length: 85 mm

Location

Bear Gulch
Fergus County
Montana
United States

• apholidotus
• bear gulch
• big snowy group
• carboniferous
• fergus county
• heath shale
• montana
• tarrasiiformes
• tff-oilshale-ch885
• usa

Comments

This fish belongs to the Tarrasiids, a group of extinct bony fish with elongated body and a diphycercal caudal fin that was continuous with the dorsal and anal fins. The continuous dorsal-caudal-anal fin is well webbed between the fin rays. Fish with this fin disposition today are slow weak swimmers that move either forward or backward, by body undulation, median fin undulation or pectoral paddling. Fish such as these are shelter dwellers in geometrically complex shallow water environments, such as weed or sponge beds.

No valid description seems to exist. For Apholidotos ossna Lund, the reference given is "in Frickhinger, 1991". Another name - Apholidotus ossuosus Lund - is used by UMPC (University of Montana Paleontology Center) in their catalog. In his own much later publications (e.g. in 1999), Lund himself in not using any of these combinations, he is only using the nickname "Garden Eel".